88 THE PINE AND HEATHER COUNTRY 



ing great unwillingness to quit the spot, perched on a 

 rail about four yards off a most unusual thing for a 

 snipe to do and remained watching them. Soon 

 after, they discovered at the bottom of the pit four 

 very young snipes lying together, which they took up 

 and laid upon the level ground, whence they were 

 soon called away by the mother-bird into the rough 

 grass near. 



Plovers nest on the swamps and rough hill-sides ; 

 and there are a fair number of wild pheasants and 

 partridges on the sides of the forest. Squirrels swarm 

 in the pine-trees, and live on the seeds of the cones. 

 But perhaps the most interesting colony in the forest is 

 the heronry. Perhaps this is a recent settlement, for 

 Gilbert White does not speak of it. The nests are in 

 a plantation of tall pines in the very heart of the 

 forest, where one or two small brooks, deeply tinged 

 with iron deposits, flow through the wood. The trees 

 are so tall as to be inaccessible to the climber ; and as 

 the great birds launch themselves from their nests, and 

 sail round with harsh cries above the tree-tops, the 

 visitor might well imagine himself back in some bygone 

 forest era. The trees on which the nests are placed 

 are covered by a thick green lichen, and are readily 

 distinguished from the rest. One rare bird, the Dart- 

 ford Warbler, which haunts the forest, has been almost 

 destroyed by the recent severe winters ; and great 

 numbers of woodpeckers have also died. But in the 

 ring of lofty firs which caps the hill above the pool of 

 Holly-water, there are a number of their nests, or 



