2 Introduction. 



Avon), the vale of Kennet. or of Pewsey, or of Wily, or of War- 

 dour ? Where, again, in all England can we meet with a forest 

 to compare with that of Savernake ? And in woods and parks 

 and well- timbered estates, both in the north and south of the 

 county, we are exceptionally rich. 



But it is an undisputed fact in Ornithology indeed, I may say 

 in Zoology, and even in Natural History generally that those 

 districts afford the greatest variety of species which comprise the 

 greatest variety of scenery ; for as some kinds of birds prefer an 

 open plain, others a sequestered valley ; as some delight in the 

 recesses of deep woods, others court the margins of streams, and 

 all these are usually to be found in their own peculiar locality, 

 the ornithologist in search of particular species will devote his 

 attention to the country suited to the habits of the bird of which 

 he is in search. Thus (to take an example which must be familiar 

 to everybody), who would think of beating a thick wood for 

 snipe, or of wading through a marsh for partridges ? It is the 

 same with every species of bird, as well as with all quadrupeds, 

 reptiles, insects, and other inferior tribes of the animal kingdom. 

 The Almighty Creator has peopled with the living creatures 

 which He has made, no less the wild dreary plain than the sunny, 

 smiling valley ; no less the bleak open down than the sheltered, 

 sequestered nook. I myself have found specimens of animal life 

 far above vegetation among the eternal snows of the Swiss Alps, 

 9,000 feet above the sea, and on the immense deserts of rock and 

 snow composing the Norwegian ' fjelds.' But far more than this, 

 that indefatigable naturalist, De Saussure, who first surmounted 

 the avalanches and glaciers which presented, till then, an impass- 

 able barrier to the ascent of Mont Blanc, discovered on the very 

 top of that noble mountain several minute insects, which seemed 

 to revel in the cold and rarified air of that exalted spot, upwards 

 of 15,000 feet above the sea ! And again, Lieutenant Greeley, in 

 the Arctic expedition which reached the highest latitude ever 

 attained by man, describes the existence in summer of many 

 butterflies, and quite a ' plague of flies,' amidst the icebergs and 

 snows of 83 N. lat. 



