THE BIRDS OF WILTSHIRE. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE county of Wilts has been sometimes thoughtlessly said to be 

 poor in Ornithology ; indeed, I have heard it denounced by super- 

 ficial observers as exceptionally wanting in the various members 

 of the feathered race ; pre-eminent, doubtless, in the remains of 

 antiquity so these gentlemen are good enough to allow but in 

 birds a barren field indeed. Against any such verdict I enter a 

 decided protest, and I even maintain, on the contrary, that, 

 taking into consideration that Wiltshire is an inland district, and 

 therefore cannot be expected to abound in birds whose habitat is 

 the sea and the seashore, our county will scarcely yield to any 

 other, similarly situated, in the number and variety of the species 

 of birds to be found there ; and I now proceed to prove this by 

 statistics. 



Let us first, however, examine the physical aspect of Wiltshire, 

 and we shall see that it is not composed of bleak open downs 

 alone, as its detractors superciliously affirm ; but that it can show 

 a great diversity of scenery, and much of it of surpassing beauty. 

 We have, it is true, our broad, open, expanding downs and what 

 native of Wiltshire does not glory in them and admire them ? 

 but we have at the same time our richly- timbered vales : if we 

 have hill, we have also dale ; if we have open plains, we have also 

 large woods and thick forests. Where shall we find more clear 

 and limpid streams, where more green and laughing meadows, 

 than in the valleys of Avon (the northern and the southern 



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