SANCTUARIES FOR WILD BIRDS 233 



that inside the Chesil Beach, where both sides of the 

 lagoon are the property of Lord Ilchester. There, 

 in and below the swannery, immense numbers of 

 fowl congregate and are left in peace during the 

 greater part of the winter, and though not so com- 

 plete a * sanctuary* as the Holkham mere, where 

 Lord Leicester has for many years refused to allow 

 a shot to be fired, it is a concrete instance of the 

 success attained by protecting a given area of sea 

 water. Great inlets, like the Wash and the Northern 

 Firths, are less well suited for such * reserves' than 

 inland lakes or land-locked harbours, partly because 

 the fowl cannot obtain shelter from rough weather 

 on such extensive tracts of sea, and also because, 

 even in calm weather, their habits and appearance 

 could scarcely be observed when the flocks are 

 scattered over many thousands of acres. An ideal 

 place for such a sanctuary would be the land-locked 

 gulfs of Poole Harbour, where not only the diving 

 and surface ducks, grebes, coots, cormorants, and 

 occasional wild swans, would assemble in thousands 

 in the winter months if a truce could be proclaimed, 

 but also the flocks of still Jess accessible shore fowl, 

 curlews, plover, redshanks, knots, and the like, might 

 be observed on the shores as the ducks may now be 

 observed on the inland lakes. Even these waders, 

 the shyest of all shy fowl, learn to recognise a 



