Till IN-TKODXJCIION. 



others fully revealed and sparkling over their stony channels. 

 In such places the Sandpiper lays its four beautiful eggs ; and 

 the Dipper and Eing Ouzel rear their broods. Cliffs also abound, 

 riven and shattered by ages of elemental strife. And here the 

 Eaven, in former times, had its abode ; and stUl, by its name, 

 gives a certaia weird picturesqueness to some of its former 

 haunts, as for instance Eaven's Crag, on the ridge of Simonside 

 and Eaven's Cleugh, near Ottercaps. 



The cultivated regions are ia some places well wooded, and the 

 fields are mostly divided by thorn hedgerows, giving at once 

 beauty to the landscape, and shelter to the more delicate tribes 

 of the Passer es. But such, particularly the warblers, find their 

 haunts in our numerous wooded dells or "denes" which abound 

 in both counties, and by the shrubby banks of our burns or 

 streamlets. Here the hawthorn, the black thorn, the wild rose, 

 and bramble, and undergrowths of all kinds, afford to these de- 

 licate songsters the shelter and seclusion they require. These 

 " denes," of which Castle Eden Dene is a fine example, are fre- 

 quently well timbered, deep, and have a stream running through 

 them. The principal rivers, the Tyne, the Coquet, and the 

 Wear, not to mention the bordering streams, the Tweed and the 

 Tees, run through deep wide valleys, with, in many parts, well 

 wooded banks, affording, likewise, favourite homes for various 

 feathered tribes. Besides such localities, there is no want of 

 extensive woods dispersed throughout the counties, and well 

 wooded park grounds, where accommodation can be found for 

 such birds as the Pies, the Jays, the Pigeons, the Thrushes, etc., 

 and the smaller Hawks and Owls. But, alas! most of these 

 resident species have no resting place, for they are every where 

 ruthlessly shot down by the game-preserver, who, having desig- 

 nated them " vermin," gives them no quarter. 



Besides the favourable character of the physical features of the 

 two counties, the district is well situated as regards the spring 

 and autumn migrations to and fi-om the north of Europe as al- 

 ready pointed out ; and the proximity of the numerous breeding 

 stations of marine birds on the west of Scotland, and also of the 

 mountainous regions and wild moorlands of the lake districts of 



