124 
NATURE NOTES. 
being far less obtrusive in appearance and habits than the birds 
of some countries. From their locaF' habits also it is often 
necessary not only to go far afield to see some of the rarer 
species, but also to walk over a good deal of countr}" — bleak, 
marshy meadow, woodland, heath and down, dreary salt-marsh 
and sea beach — in order to become acquainted with even the 
birds which are only not of the commonest. The dipper cannot 
be called an uncommon bird, yet the observer who lived all his 
life in the south-east quarter of Britain would probably never 
see it. The birds are there for those who look for them ; though 
the observer may have to spend many years before he gains a 
real acquaintance with our avifauna. In point of numbers of 
species and individuals indeed we should have to 5ueld to few 
civilised and populous countries of our own size, and although 
we have a cold winter climate, I think few people who are ac- 
customed to carrying on their investigations on flat coasts, or 
in inland valleys, would be much excited with either astonish- 
ment or delight at the sight of a heron, or would not manage to 
turn up a few interesting species in the course of their winter 
walks. 
Mr. Hudson seems to me inclined to throw too much blame 
upon “inveterate bird destro3^ers ” and to attach too little im- 
portance to the effect of the alteration of the face of the country’ 
by drainage, cultivation, &c., and to the idiosyncrasies of certain 
species of birds. The drainage of fens and “ broads” made a 
vast difference to many species. Witness what Stevenson 
wrote about the drainage of the fen district of Norfolk, and its 
birds : “ The redshank was induced to return to its old haunts 
by the extraordinary flood of November, 1852, which burst the 
river bank near Southery, and laid many thousand acres under 
water for more than six months, making a paradise for wild 
fowl of all kinds, and furnishing ornithologists of this generation 
with a vision of times past and gone. This same flood acted 
in like manner upon the black tern and the black-headed gull, 
both of which in 1853 stayed to breed in places which had been 
so long abandoned by them, that their names were unknown in 
the land.” This shows that drainage and not the direct perse- 
cution of man drove out the black tern. Among the “ lost ” 
thirteen w'e find Savi’s warbler, or “ red night reeler,” and agree 
with the author in being disinclined to blame man (directly) for 
its disappearance. But drainage must have had some effect 
upon it. It is certain that its head quarters in Cambridgeshire 
and Huntingdonshire were drained. But the half dozen speci- 
* Though I have some acquaintance with the birds of about a dozen counties, 
I have only once been in the haunts of the woodlark ; but there it seemed to be 
common, and I listened to two singing in oak trees — one on each side of a narrow 
road. The pied flycatcher in the breeding season is almost confined to Western 
Britain. In the one instance in which I found it established in Britain the 
scenery had a wonderful resemblance to that of the bird’s haunts in Switzerland. 
