wise--which have taken place in the Islands, especially Guernsey,
during the last fifty or sixty years (for which I have to offer Mr.
MacCulloch my best thanks), gives a very good general idea of many of
the alterations that have taken place in the face of the country during
the period above mentioned; but does not by any means exhaust them, as
no mention is made of the immense increase of orchard-houses in all
parts of Guernsey, which has been so great that I may fairly say that
within the last few years miles of glasshouses have been built in
Guernsey alone: these have been built mostly for the purpose of growing
grapes for the London market. These orchard-houses have, to a certain
extent, taken the place of ordinary orchards and gardens, which have
been rooted up and destroyed to make place for this enormous extent of
glass. But what appeared to me to have made the greatest change, and has
probably had more effect on the Ornithology of the Island, especially of
that part known as the Vale, is the enormous number of granite quarries
which are being worked there (luckily the beautiful cliffs have hitherto
escaped the granite in those parts, probably not being so good); but in
the Vale from St. Samson's to Fort Doyle, and from there to the Vale
Church, with the exception of L'Ancresse Common itself, which has
hitherto escaped, the whole face of the country is changed by quarry
works and covered with small windmills used for pumping the water from
the quarries. These quarry works and the extra population brought by
them into the Island, all of whom carry guns and shoot everything that
is fit to eat or is likely to fetch a few "doubles" in the market, have
done a good deal to thin the birds in that part of the Islands,
especially such as are in any way fit for sale or food, and probably
have done more to make a change in the Ornithology of that part of the
Island than all the agricultural changes mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch.
Indeed, I am rather sceptical as to the agricultural changes above
described having produced so much change in the avifauna of the Islands
during the last fifty years as Mr. MacCulloch appears to think; there is
still a great deal of undrained or badly drained land in the
Island--especially about the Vale, the Grand Mare and L'Eree--which
might still afford a home for Moorhens, Water Rails, and even Bitterns,
and all that class of wading birds which delight in swampy land and reed
beds. Though no doubt,