2 8z DECEMBER 



and lake and rock as lies inland of Caern Cliddy in Pem 

 brokeshire, from which you may flush a cloud of owls or 

 snipe, or, in better weather, woodcock, and as evening 

 sinks hear the wild note of scores of curlew and the 

 croak of hundreds of coot. The greater hills and the 

 great cliffs (such as form the southern end of Ramsey 

 Island) are more tremendous ; but in all our island few 

 scenes are of more spacious loneliness than the lake inland 

 of the third dam near the top of the Elan Valley. It is a 

 world s wonder. 



A good part of the country where England and Wales 

 approach each other is very little frequented, and many 

 parts of it are a naturalist s paradise. There are marshes 

 where the black-headed gulls build in great colonies ; 

 there are moors where the grouse flourish and whereby 

 the vanished kites, those great and splendid hawks, are 

 trying to re-establish themselves. The buzzards are com 

 mon, the merlin not rare at the right season ; the curlews 

 nest in many different regions, and even that utter rarity, 

 the spotted crake, lived for a while. The landscape 

 almost all the way has a glory of its own ; yet in the 

 several journeys I have taken, mostly for the sake of 

 seeing birds, travelling from the Wye Valley near Here 

 ford, westwards, I have marvelled at the rarity of visitors 

 and the retention of its wildness by wide stretches of 

 land that invite every sort of intrusion. By what a dis 

 tance are these natural sanctuaries of the West separated 

 from the actual sanctuaries of the East of England 1 



Both Norfolk and Pembrokeshire keep a good share 

 of their native wildness ; and yet if you would go forth 

 to see the birds especially associated with wildness and 

 water, you will best go at this season neither to Scolt Head 

 nor the Elan Valley, but to the London reservoirs. Per 

 haps neither Birmingham nor Manchester has attracted 



