Wild Life on a Surrey Moor 



although the birds took not the slightest notice of the 

 noisy traffic they were scared off by the sound of my 

 apparatus, even when a motor-'bus was passing. 



Water voles live in sparing numbers in the banks 

 of the sluggish streams/ that drain the moorland and do 

 not appear to be troubled by many enemies, saving, 

 perhaps, a solitary heron fishing for frogs or a blood- 

 thirsty stoat on the prowl. Stoats sometimes wander 

 great distances in search of their prey, and, although 

 they do not love wet marshy ground, show not the 

 slightest hesitation about plunging into and swimming 

 across any stream or dyke too wide to be leapt over. 



If a water vole when seized by a stoat should try to 

 escape by rolling off a bank and carrying his enemy 

 with him into deep water, the manoeuvre does not save 

 him, for the murderer never relaxes his hold, and 

 ultimately swims ashore with his victim. 



In a flat country birds generally tell you of the 

 approach of a stoat or weasel by noisily mobbing him. 



Alas ! within the last decade or two dry summers 

 and thoughtless wanderers with matches have sadly 

 reduced the beautiful masses of golden gorse fhat used 

 to adorn the dark stretches of our Surrey moor and 

 provide excellent cover for the Dartford warbler and 

 many another frail, feathered friend. This bird earned 

 its popular name through being first discovered near to 

 the town of Dartford in Kent by a Dr. Latham about 

 a hundred and forty odd years ago. It is a lover of 

 calm, sunny mornings, when the cock will mount the air 

 and pipe his shrill ditty like a whitethroat, or deliver 



