A STAFFORDSHIRE CLAIM.
We all know how various are the peculiar beauties of England. You cannot exhaust them. Into whatever county you go, you think that the loveliest. Until last week I confess that I should not have dreamed of claiming a place for Staffordshire among the first ; but at the newest Bird Sanctuary and Nature Reserve (opened last Saturday by Lord Grey) you felt that here was a scene quite unparalleled elsewhere. There may be lovelier spots, but none has quite the same mingling of qualities. No other downs in England are broken so abruptly into such queerly patterned bluffs and hollows, and among them a sense of utter wildness prevails. It was a great triumph of the Staffordshire Natural History Society to secure so large an area—over 200 acres—as a reserve for plants and mammals as well as birds. Except perhaps Cheshire and Norfolk no county has a more vigorous body of naturalists. One is glad to know that they are not less interested in the preservation of their badgers and ferns, than of their hobbies and warblers.
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