CHANGE OF HERBAGE. 
burn wood on any spot, though there may be 
no white clover within an immense distance, 
the place will, in a summer or two, be covered 
with it. It has been said that, after burning 
any of the woods of America, vegetation of a 
totally different nature springs up. It is said 
that, after the Fire of London, the ruins were 
overgrown with wild mustard, or some such 
weed; and that, after the fire of the two Houses 
of Parliament, the same weed grew in abun- 
dance. We have endeavoured to convince 
ourselves that, in all such cases, the seeds are 
already deposited in the earth, and are ger- 
minated by the change of circumstances in 
the soil, or that the seeds were conveyed in 
numbers by the wind to those parts, and the 
change has rendered the soil capable of ger- 
minating it, while, under previous circum- 
stances, it was not. The following curious 
paper, by the Rev. J. D. Banister, upon the 
subject of entirely changing the vegetation on a 
large surface of ground, is instructive as well 
as interesting ; we take it from the " Zoolo- 
gist,"* a monthly work of great use, and cor- 
responding popularity: — 
" For several years past, it has been re- 
marked by persons visiting and working on 
Pilling Moss, that the herbage of a certain 
portion of it, much frequented by sea gulls 
in the breeding-season, had recently under- 
gone, and more of it was yearly undergoing, 
a great and wonderful change. 
" For the information of persons unac- 
quainted with this locality, let me inform 
them that the extensive tract of boggy land, 
commonly called Pilling Moss, is situated in 
the northern division of the county palatine 
of Lancaster, and principally lying in the 
parish of Cockerham, the townships of 
Winrnarleigh, Out Raweliffe, Stalmine and 
Pilling ; but as Pilling occupies a central 
position, and has a greater extent of bog-land 
appertaining to it, than any one of the other 
afore-mentioned townships, this boggy tract 
has on that account, I presume, obtained the 
name of Pilling Moss, which for centuries 
has afforded a considerable supply of fuel to 
the inhabitants of the surrounding country, 
and has also been considered so inexhaustible 
as to become proverbial in many parts of the 
north of England, namely, that ' Pilling Moss 
and God's grace will last for ever.' 
" But it is the very remarkable change of 
the herbage of this celebrated moss that I 
have undertaken to notice in the first place. 
The chief part of this moss, in its original 
wild, uncultivated, and undrained state, pro- 
duces very little herbage excepting bent grass, 
and a poor, short, unhealthy heath, provin- 
Jiow 
The Zoologist. London : Van Voorst, Paternoster 
chilly called ling. In its undrained state, the 
surface is of so soft and spongy a texture, 
that no description of cattle can depasture or 
even walk upon it in security ; nay, unless a 
long frost has congealed the surface, or a suc- 
cession of dry weather considerably evaporated 
the moisture, it is impassable, in many parts, 
dry-shod, by man. In every quarter boggy 
swamps, pits, or tarns of water, extensively 
prevail ; and an unlucky or unguarded step 
may easily precipitate the careless intruder 
over head and ears in some of the deep sloughs, 
which are neither few nor far between. The 
average depth of this moss will probably be 
about eight or ten feet, immediately under 
which lies a stratum of blue sand, loam or 
silt, and this generally divides the boggy 
earth or peat from a rich and friable marl or 
clay, which, when applied as manure to the 
drained moss, renders it so fruitful as to pro- 
duce, in favourable seasons, an excellent crop 
of oats. 
" Originally on this moss the common wild 
duck, teal, snipe, curlew, golden plover, dun- 
lin, and even red grouse, bred extensively, 
but of late their numbers have decreased con- 
siderably, especially since a large portion of it 
has been brought into a state of cultivation ; 
though a few pairs of these birds still occupy 
certain districts where they annually rear 
their broods. New tenants, however, within 
the space of the last twelve years, have suc- 
ceeded the ancient colonists, locating them- 
selves in the wettest and least accessible por- 
tion of the moss. These modern settlers are 
the black-backed and black-headed gulls ; and 
as the latter have been, for several years past, 
protected by the gamekeepers from the plun- 
dering propensities and pilfering habits of idle 
boys and mischievous persons, they have now 
become very numerous, and each succeeding 
year adds some thousands to their rapidly in- 
creasing numbers, so that the protection which 
is now thrown around this harmless bird, by 
the agriculturists and the gamekeepers, bids 
fair, at no distant period, to make this colony 
of black-headed gulls the largest in the king- 
dom. The place chosen by these birds for 
their nidification, is the most swampy that 
could be selected, and in its undrained state 
produces the least and poorest vegetation. 
Previously to its being selected by these birds 
for their breeding-ground, it produced scarcely 
anything but miserably stunted, unhealthy, 
heath. This poor heath, in the immediate 
vicinity of these birds, has been almost en- 
tirely annihilated by their excrement, and in 
its place has sprung up a rich and varied 
vegetation, surpassing in verdure and luxuri- 
ance much of the cultivated land around and 
adjoining the moss. The following are a few 
of the plants which have been introduced on 
