PREFACE XI 



from the vicinity of Eockcliffe along the north of Carlisle for 

 many miles. In the time of Charles n., great part of the dis- 

 trict was forest, and covered with dense scrub of oak, ash, 

 thorn, hazel, and birch, whose stocks are frequently found 

 buried beneath the peat, while the scrub itself remains in 

 many places in the low bottoms. The frequent occurrence 

 in peat and elsewhere of the antlers of Eed Deer, many 

 much larger than at the present day, shows that the deer 

 must have had abundance of 'browse,' — that is, ' scrub,' — for 

 their support in times past, extending over a wide range of 

 country. Modern changes must, too, have greatly affected 

 the fauna of Lakeland ; up to the end nearly of the last 

 century, thousands of acres in Lakeland were lying waste in 

 open common. Enclosure acts were obtained, and between 

 1780 and 1820 thousands of acres of heathy hill and rushy 

 swamp were enclosed, and converted into cultivated fields 

 and verdant meadows. Many tarns, such as Tarn Wadling, 

 Gibb Tarn, etc., have been drained, and the corn now waves 

 in rich profusion, where fish once swam. Large areas, long 

 ago denuded of their ancient ' scrub,' have been replanted. 

 Such changes must have affected largely the fauna of Lake- 

 land, and it is for our author to trace out their effects i 1 there 

 is an archaeology in natural history as in all other things. 



E. S. F. 



1892. 



1 See The Birds of Cumberland, p. xvii, for a careful summary of 

 changes in the Avifauna. 



