Rare Birds
We begin to see in very definite form the return of the birds to England in response to protection and the more spacious sanctuary. An outstanding instance, of which nothing has been said for fear of the collector, was the successful nesting this summer by the South Western coast of the blackthroated diver. The tribe is delightful to watch, whether red or black throated, as I have watched them off a • Western and Scottish island that is still a sanctuary in fact though not in name for the golden eagle, the ehough and these loons." They draw the interest of even those who cannot distinguish a hawk from a handsaw. Almost the most charming passage in Thoreau's Walden, a book of much more distinction—or so it seems to me—than the critics have allowed, concerns the loon that appeared and disappeared, like the Cheshire cat, in the lake by the amateur's house. Such birds become almost a part of the scenery. It would be a delight to many if these great birds—and they are hardy and not very shy—would multiply as the greater crested grebe has multiplied, even to the edge of London. In their skill on and below the water the two species have similar excellences.
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