WANDERERS. 275 



by in calm weather, your glass will show you this 

 and more. 



Within a few miles from London, as travelling 

 goes now, the gannets in their seasons can be seen 

 flying and plunging with almost clock-work regular- 

 ity, following the shoals of fish out over the sand- 

 bar. It is a dangerous place that sand-bar ; some 

 of those who last visited it have not the least desire 

 to repeat the trip. If these sanctuaries did not 

 exist, our waters would soon be lifeless. Happily 

 they do, and to them the feathered wanderers 

 come in countless hosts, as they have ever done. 

 Those seen on the shore-line, great as their numbers 

 may be, are really only the fringe, so to speak, of the 

 vast congregations that resort to the sanctuaries of 

 the dreaded sand-bar. 



The regular wanderers come now, as they have 

 done from time beyond record, but not to the same 

 places. The bittern, little bittern, hoopoe, and 

 golden oriole would nest in England, I think, if 

 they were permitted to do so. 



Recently, birds have passed over the Surrey hills 

 and woodlands in the night-time, from north-east 

 to south-west, that by their trumpet - notes told 



