PREFACE. XI 



Island than all the agricultural changes mentioned 

 by Mr. MacCulloch. Indeed, I am rather sceptical 

 as to the agricultural changes above described 

 having produced so much change in the avifauna 

 of the Islands during the last fifty years as 

 Mr. MacCulloch appears to think ; there is still a 

 great deal of undrained or badly drained land in 

 the Island especially about the Vale, the Grand 

 Mare and L'Eree which might still afford a home 

 for Moorhens, Water Eails, and even Bitterns, and 

 all that class of wading birds which delight in 

 swampy land and reed beds. Though no doubt, 

 as Mr. MacCulloch said, many orchards have been 

 destroyed to make room for more profitable crops 

 or for orchard-houses, still there are many orchards 

 left in the Island. I think, however, many, if not 

 all the cherry orchards (amongst which the Golden 

 Orioles apparently at one time luxuriated) are gone. 

 There is also still a great deal of hedge-row timber, 

 none of it indeed very large, but in places very 

 thick ; in fact, I could point out miles of hedges in 

 Guernsey where the trees, mostly elm, grow so thick 

 together that it would be nearly impossible to pick 

 out a place where one could squeeze one's horse 

 between the trees without rubbing one's knees on 

 one side or the other, probably on both, against 

 them, if one found it necessary to ride across the 

 country. True, on a great extent of the higher 

 part of the Island, all along on both sides of what is 



