Xll PREFACE. 



known as the Forest Eoad, there s little or no 

 hedge-row timber, the fields here being divided by 

 low banks with furze growing on the top of them. 

 Furze brakes also are still numerous, the whole of 

 the flat land on the top of the cliffs and the steep 

 valleys and slopes down to the sea on the south and 

 east side of the Island, from Fermain Bay to 

 Pleimont, being almost uninterrupted wild land 

 covered with heather, furze, and bracken ; besides 

 this wild furze land, there are several thick furze 

 brakes inland in different parts of the Island. All 

 these places seem to me to have remained almost 

 without change for years. The furze, however, never 

 grows very high, as it is cut every few years for fuel ; 

 in consequence of this, however, it is more beautiful 

 in blooming in the spring than if it had been 

 allowed several years' growth, covering the whole 

 face of the ground above the cliffs like a brilliant 

 yellow carpet; but being kept so short, it is not 

 perhaps so convenient for nesting purposes as if it 

 was allowed a longer growth. 



The Guernsey Bird Act, which applies to all the 

 Islands in the Bailiwick, and has been in force for 

 some few years, seems to me to have had little 

 effect on the numbers of the sea-birds of the 

 district, though it includes the eggs as well as the 

 birds, except perhaps to increase the number of 

 Herring Gulls and Shags (which were always suf- 

 ficiently numerous) in their old breeding-stations, 



