. Pictures of bird life : on woodland meadow, mountain and marsh . erns, Avosets. This Kingsley wrote in liis eloquent lament over the disap-pearance of tlie old fen country and its wild inhabitantsand their picturesque associations. And gone they truly areas regular and common visitors. But fortunately the memory of places seems to lingerstrangely in tlie minds of birds. They are very reluctant toforsake altogether any locality frequented by tliem throughmany generations : and for years they or their descendants,impelled by Ave know not what inherited instinct or ghostof a memory, will revisi
. Pictures of bird life : on woodland meadow, mountain and marsh . erns, Avosets. This Kingsley wrote in liis eloquent lament over the disap-pearance of tlie old fen country and its wild inhabitantsand their picturesque associations. And gone they truly areas regular and common visitors. But fortunately the memory of places seems to lingerstrangely in tlie minds of birds. They are very reluctant toforsake altogether any locality frequented by tliem throughmany generations : and for years they or their descendants,impelled by Ave know not what inherited instinct or ghostof a memory, will revisit the once-familiar spots, in spite ofpersecution, and in spite of sadly altered circumstances. Of the Lincolnshire fen country barely a trace remains,to such an extent has it been drained and culti\ated. growingroots and corn where formerly the Coot clanked and theBittern boomed, and tlie Sedge-bird, not content with itsown sweet song, mocked the notes of all the birds around ;while high overhead hung motionless Hawk beyond Hawk» Bird Life in Dutch Marshes 225. Whiie Stork {tnuiiui ctllxt) on Nkst. l^Lizzard Ijcyoud Buz-zard, Kite beyond Kite,as far as the eye couldsee. In Norfolk the fenfauna is making a laststand, niucli as tlieEnglish did after theConquest in tlie old Elyfen, and, hke tlieni, theyare year l)y year dwin-dling down and beingo\erwliehncd by a neworder of things ; so tliatthe ornithologist desirousof observing their habits,being unable to findthem with any degree ofcertainty, is compelledto cross the North Seaand follow them to theirli aunts in I) a n i s limarshes, and in the• meers and polders of Holland, while thereis yet time. Even therethe greed of mankind ispressing heavily on them,15 22() Pictures of Bird Life —so niucli so that it is only a question of time—a fewmore years—and they will have to be followed still fartherafield, to eountries where they ean find more free and unoceiipied space and less humanpersecution. Holland is the nearest andm
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdspi, bookyear1903
