CHAPTER IV. 



ON HEATHS AND MARSHES. 



title of the present chapter, to some readers, 

 1 may seem rather a misnomer, especially the 

 first portion of it. We have already made a brief 

 survey of bird -life among the heather, but then a 

 moor is not exactly a heath. For the purpose of 

 the present volume the definition of the word " heath" 

 must be taken to be a small area of uncultivated 

 ground, covered with bracken, brambles, gorse, and 

 briars, with patches of heather here and there, 

 studded with stunted trees and bushes, and in not 

 a few cases surrounded with woods, arable lands, 

 and pastures. There are many such delightful bits 

 of waste ground in the northern shires, not only 

 inland, but at no great distance from the sea. Of 

 the bogs and marshes we may claim a fair share, 

 although drainage and reclamation have reduced their 

 area considerably in not a few cases, or removed 

 others entirely. The fens of the low-lying eastern 

 counties of Norfolk and Suffolk scarcely come 

 within our limits, whilst those of Lincolnshire exist 

 almost only in name. The bird-life of these heaths 

 and marshes is characteristic and interesting, although 



