FIN AND FUR ON SURREY HILLS. 83 



and walking over the common and on to West- 

 humble, we find Box Hill fronting us. In spite of 

 the changes following in the wake of fresh bricks 

 and mortar, delightful remnants of what has been 

 are still to be found. One spot I often visit, — a 

 large pool, a half-choked-up mill-pond, with a cur- 

 rent running through the middle of it, and bare ex- 

 panses of soft slub, where flag and iris, tasselled 

 grasses and rushes, and stunted willow growth, 

 flourish most luxuriantly. This pool must possess 

 some' peculiar attraction for all the birds of passage 

 that affect such localities, either for purposes of 

 breeding or for food ; for here, in their migrating 

 seasons of spring and autumn, come curlew, plover, 

 dunlins — these, by the way, have a great portion of 

 their full breeding plumage about them — sandpipers, 

 the common or willy wicket, and the rarer green 

 sandpiper. Geese come at longer intervals, ducks 

 are common, teal visit it now and again, terns fre- 

 quently, and gulls that, from some reason or another 

 only known to themselves, are tempted to stay their 

 flight for a time and to rest here — a treacherous 

 enough resting-place to some of them. Snipe, also, 

 visit the place — wisps of them zigzag up at times, 



