SANCTUARIES FOR WILD BIRDS 



REFERRING to an account of the wild fowl on 

 Holkham Lake, published in the Spectator of 

 January i8th, 1896, Mr Francis Darwin wrote from 

 Arthington in Yorkshire : * At Walton, in the 

 late Mr Waterton's time, I often, in an evening, 

 used to watch the birds congregating for their flight 

 to their evening feeding grounds, on the Humber 

 and Lincolnshire coast ; and I have wished, and 

 almost hoped, to see the time when large areas of 

 sea and country, such as the Wash and parts of the 

 Lincolnshire coast, with the Cromarty Firth, in 

 Scotland, should be made sanctuaries for wild birds, 

 in which they, as the deer in the forest sanctuaries 

 now do, could feel themselves at rest from the 

 sportsman, and where those who like to watch the 

 birds in their usual natural state could see them.' 



This suggestion of creating a 'reserve' on a 

 given area of sea and adjacent coast, deserves atten- 

 tion. The nearest approach to such a sanctuary is 



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