LIFE OF THE A UTHOR. 125 



The success of Waterton in affording the animal creation a refuge 

 from persecution, met here and there with a check. The murderous 

 vigilance of bird-stuffers outside the wall was fatal to the green wood- 

 pecker, and it was long absent from the park. In 1864 we saw a 

 line specimen settle on a fir, and afterwards fly across the lake, and 

 it sung out a clear " ha ! ha ! " as it went. Thenceforward a pair fre* 

 quented one of the woods, and, what was peculiar, a single biro 

 roosted throughout the winter of 1865 in a cell of the starling tower. 

 There are mysteries in the economy of animals which sometimes 

 cause them to frequent or desert a spot fitfully, without any apparent 

 reason for the change. A walled bank in the garden was pierced 

 with upwards of fifty holes, and fitted with drain pipes, that they 

 might form nestling places for sand-martins. The year they were 

 completed every hole was tenanted by a pair of martins. The next 

 year they were all left empty, and empty they remained till 1864, 

 when the martins returned. This was an exception to the rule. 

 The birds were in general steady to their haunts, and throve and 

 multiplied exceedingly. And no wonder when their rate of increase 

 is considered. There were above 160 rooks' nests at Walton, and if 

 we suppose that three young birds were reared in each nest, the 

 parents and progeny together mounted up to an annual population 

 of 800. 



A few boiled potatoes were put on the island for the jack-daws 

 when the weather was severe, and the water-hens now and then took 

 a peck at them. This was the only feeding done at Walton Hall. 

 The hordes of birds were attracted by the simple circumstance that 

 they were let alone. Without some security for his land, man 

 relapses into the nomadic state, and population diminishes. With- 

 out security for life, birds not only decrease, but they are constantly 

 on the move, and the shyness of the majority renders it impossible 

 to observe them. Waterton never fired a shot within his park, never 

 permitted dogs or keepers to range the woods, nor allowed a boat 

 on the lake from Michaelmas-day to May-day. Along with the 

 herons, ancients princes among game, flourished the modern lords, 

 the pheasants, in the presence of every species of vermin, save the 

 most destructive vermin of all, the animal-destroyer, who goes by the 

 name of a gamekeeper. Nature herself preserves the balance, with 



