. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. PHEASANT NEST "WITH THIRTEEN EGGS. those dark fir belts!), the partridges, most motherly of birds, utilising every feather in spreading them- selves over their seven- teen or eighteen eggs, deep down in the waving grass, the pheasants closely snuggled under the shelter of a friendlv fir. Naturalists may re- gret that the natural fauna of carnivorous mammals and birds of prey is all but exterminated by watchful keepers, whose one care is naturally the game they have to protect, but none will dispute the fact that all the
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. PHEASANT NEST "WITH THIRTEEN EGGS. those dark fir belts!), the partridges, most motherly of birds, utilising every feather in spreading them- selves over their seven- teen or eighteen eggs, deep down in the waving grass, the pheasants closely snuggled under the shelter of a friendlv fir. Naturalists may re- gret that the natural fauna of carnivorous mammals and birds of prey is all but exterminated by watchful keepers, whose one care is naturally the game they have to protect, but none will dispute the fact that all the large game preserves in England give a shelter to many interesting birds which are not detrimental to the game, and are therefore not only unmolested by the keepers, but share with the' partridges and pheasants that seclusion which is necessary for their well being—almost for their very existence. Let any who doubt it have an opportunity of inspecting the plantations in an ordinary agricultural district, where game- keepers are unknown; note the gaps in the hedges and trodden-down tracks in the. vegetation leading to the empty boy-robbed birds' nests; compare this with the coverts of a well-" kept" game preserve, where every nest has eggs or young. The large game moors and heaths are the safe breeding ground of innumerable birds of the wader and plover family, as the Breck district is the sanctuary of the interesting wild birds which in this article the writer will endeavour to describe. The presence in the fauna of several sea- coast forms, the nature of the soil, and its immediate proximity to the deep fens, has led many naturalists to regard the Breck as a remnant of an old coast line, the shore of an ancient bay which possibly covered the whole of the fens of North Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. There is a very natural disposition on the part of students of natural science to value most highly the evidence afforded by their own special branch; and although ge
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1902
