i6 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



name that we must distinguish from the mere " country," 

 as much besmirched and devastated by man as are the 

 sites of his towns and cities, the regions where untouched 

 nature still survives and is free from the depredations of 

 humanity. Many beautiful and rare plants which once 

 inhabited our countryside have perished ; many larger 

 animals (such as wolf, beaver, red-deer, marten-cats, and 

 wild-cats) have disappeared, as well as many insects, 

 great and small, such as the swallow-tailed butterfly and 

 the larger copper butterfly, and many splendid birds. 



Here and there in these islands are to be found bits 

 of " wilderness " where some of the ancient life — now so 

 rapidly being destroyed — rstill flourishes. There are 

 some coast-side marshes, there are East Anglian fens, 

 some open heath-land, and some bits of forest which are 

 yet unspoilt, unravaged by blighting, reckless humanity. 

 It is a distressing fact that some of the recent official 

 attempts to preserve open forest land and commons for 

 the public enjoyment have been accompanied by a 

 mistaken attempt to drain them, and lay them out 

 with gravel walks, to the complete destruction of their 

 natural beauty and interest. The bog above the Leg 

 of Mutton Pond, on Hampstead Heath, where I used 

 to visit, years ago, the bog-bean and the sun-dew, 

 and many a moss-grown pool swarming with rare 

 animalcules, has been drained by an over-zealous board 

 of guardians, animated by a suburban enthusiasm for 

 turf and gravel paths. The same spirit, hostile to nature 

 and eager to reduce the wilderness to vulgar convention- 

 ality, has tamed the finer parts of Wimbledon Common, 

 and is busy laying down gravel paths in Epping Forest. 

 In the New Forest the clamour of the neighbouring 

 residents for " sport " has led to the framing of regula- 

 tions by the officials of the Crown (it is a "Royal" 



