BIBDS OF NOBTH-EAST NOBTHUMBEBLAND. 123 



the larger. The hollow in which the water stands was formerly 

 quarried out, and one side is almost perpendicular, which 

 shelters the water from the wind. On the other side short, 

 stumpy trees — elders (which tree grows better than any in this 

 district) — grow down to the water's edge, which is shallow. 

 This would be a very good place for wildfowl in winter, but 

 unfortunately there are several houses on both sides, and few 

 birds are bold enough to venture near, except perhaps an occa- 

 sional Snipe or Wild Duck. 



With the exception of the three valleys before mentioned the 

 ground is flat and uninteresting, and where it is not built over 

 is under cultivation for the greater part. But in this district, as 

 in all others, the increasing population demands an extension of 

 the villages, and the number of houses has increased of late 

 tremendously. This accounts for the steady decrease in the 

 number of bird visitors from year to year. At the present day, 

 birds which were fairly common in John Hancock's time as 

 breeding species are now never seen, such as the Tree-Sparrow 

 and Quail; and it is very seldom that the large numbers of 

 wildfowl spoken of in former days are observed. Soon, it is 

 to be feared, a future generation will smile incredulously when 

 we talk of the birds to be seen now. The bird-life there is 

 a thing of the past, as is the case in many of the former haunts 

 of the feathered world ; therefore, this paper is not so much a 

 history or description of the birds to be found there at present, 

 but a record of former days. Still, something can yet be done 

 to retain an occasional visitor to the coast, and this would 

 be to stop the shooting of birds — at any rate, on Sundays — and 

 more especially at St. Mary's Island, whither numbers of men 

 resort, usually on the day of " rest," to slaughter anything, from 

 a Pipit to a Cormorant, which they come across. Another fact 

 which prevents the stay of any shore-bird in the vicinity is that 

 the coast has no flats or slakes on which wading species usually 

 feed. The nearest thing of the kind was formerly Jarrow Slake, 

 but this does not come within the radius of the paper, being 

 some miles up the Tyne, and is now, of course, owing to in- 

 creased shipping, " no more." Many of the birds formerly shot 

 on this coast would be passing to or from these flats. 



That bird-life was plentiful in former years along the coast is 



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