SANCTUARIES FOR WILD BIRDS 237 



creatures banished from the park, and the latter only 

 on account of their undue increase. The taste for 

 maintaining near country houses some form of pro- 

 tected area, in which birds and animals may multiply 

 unmolested, is already partly established. The gun 

 is now banished from most country gardens, and 

 here the wood-pigeon, magpie, and other large birds 

 have accepted a year-long sanctuary and show them- 

 selves without fear, where formerly they only 

 ventured to appear in the nesting season. The in- 

 crease so obtained in the numbers of wild birds 

 and animals has struck others who desire to preserve 

 these on the largest scale, mainly with the very 

 opposite view of securing great numbers at certain 

 times for the purposes of sport. In this case a 

 ' single and mighty Nimrod ' often creates a semi- 

 sanctuary which offers the opportunities to the 

 naturalist which our correspondent desires. The 

 system has been extended from the deer forests of 

 Scotland to the preserves of Norfolk. At Sandring- 

 ham the Prince of Wales has created a * partridge 

 sanctuary,' set with protecting plantations and sown 

 with agreeable seed plants. At Merton, in Norfolk, 

 the number and variety of the fowl on the two 

 meres owned by Lord Walsingham is a remarkable 

 result of partial sanctuary ; the list of birds either 

 seen or shot in one day at the end of the season 



