A LAKE SANCTUARY 11 



quixotic and tyrannical. No doubt it appears in 

 the same light to the rising generation ; but to the 

 field naturalist it has afforded unusual opportunities 

 of observation. Mallard, teal, coots, water-hens, 

 water-herons, and snipe haunt it all the year round ; 

 cormorants and seagulls fly in from the sea; in 

 autumn flights of widgeon, tufted duck, and pochards 

 arrive, and a few scaup and goldeneyes drop in to 

 tea, as it were; wild swans and goosanders are 

 among the rarer visitors, and four years ago a 

 bittern condescended to take up his quarters in the 

 reed-bed at the lower end. 



To my taste, a voluntary population like this has 

 infinitely greater charm than a collection of foreign 

 wildfowl, which must be pinioned to prevent them 

 obeying the migratory instinct and departing in 

 spring. A bird deprived of its glorious powers of 

 flight is, of all cripples, the most pitiable, and its 

 plight the most heartrending. 



Moving quietly along the woodland paths beside 

 the lake with a spyglass, one gets many a peep into 

 the vie intime of some of the wariest of feathered 

 creatures. 



It is difficult, by the by, to account for the 

 different degrees of shyness among wild birds, and 



