Bethel, near
Beverley, in Yorkshire; at Pixton, the seat of Lord Carnarvon; in
Gobay Park, on the road to Penrith, near a rocky pass called Yew Crag,
on the north side of the romantic lake of Ulswater; at Cressi Hall,
six miles from Spalding, in Lincolnshire; at Downington-in-Holland, in
the same county; at Brockley Woods, near Bristol;[11] at Brownsea
Island, near Poole, in Dorsetshire; and, in Scotland, Colonel Montagu
mentions one in a small island, in a lake, where, there being
only a single scrubby oak, much too scanty to contain all the nests,
many were placed on the ground.[12] Besides these, we are acquainted
with a small one in the parish of Craigie, near Kilmarnock, in
Ayrshire.[13] We have little doubt but there are several more
unrecorded, for the birds may occasionally be seen in every part of
the island. In Lower Brittany, heronries are frequently to be found on
the tall trees of forests; and as they feed their young with fish,
many of these fall to the ground, and are greedily devoured by swine,
which has given rise to the story that the swine of that country are
fattened by fish which drop from the trees like beech-mast.[14]
[11] Jennings Ornithologia, p. 199, note.
[12] Ornith. Dict. Art. Heron.
[13] J.R.
[14] Belon, Oiseaux, p. 189
At the close of the volume are a few well-digested observations, which
will leave the reader in a delightful train of reflection, impress him
with the value of the preceding pages, and enable him to close the
volume with gratitude to its author:--
"Although, in the preceding pages, we have considered birds as miners,
as ground-builders, as masons, as carpenters, as platform-builders, as
basket-makers, as weavers, as tailors, as felt-makers, as cementers,
and as dome-builders, we have not dwelt at much length upon any
fancied analogies between their arts and those of the human race.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36