PREFACE 



THE wild places described in the following chapters 

 are so different ranging from the Southern Cliffs to 

 the Yorkshire Fen, as to suggest the question how 

 their wild character and the wild life in them has been 

 so generally preserved ? 



Some, such as the Culver Cliffs, are in a measure 

 self-protected. Some, like Abbotsbury Swannery or 

 Blenheim Lake, are choice spots, which only pass from 

 the possession of one great proprietor to another, and 

 are preserved without change ; others, like Christchurch 

 Harbour and the southern estuaries, have natural fea- 

 tures so attractive that rare birds never forsake them, 

 in spite of disturbance. The Down country round 

 "The Great White Horse" was always thinly 

 peopled, and the change from arable to pasture has 

 further reduced its human inhabitants. The Yorkshire 

 fen is kept quiet by want of roads and deep rivers 

 uncrossed by bridges. Other places described, such as 



