WOODS versus BIRDS.
Curious coincidences occur between one's reading and one's experiences. Last week I solaced parts of a very slow railway journey by reading Mr. Glover's article in The Spectator on Vanished Forests. Its charm, and yet more its suggestiveness, would delight any tree lover, as well as its plea for conservation. My journey ended in a county where afforestation is the order of the day and of many a day to come ; but the lament is exactly the opposite of Mr. Glover's. The trees are driving away the birds. The characteristic birds, such as the Norfolk plover, as well as characteristic plants, are clean banished by the fir forest ; and Breekland, that unique stretch of England, loses its charm and charac- ter. Other complaints against the new forests are heard. Local sportsmen say that their preserves are invaded by hosts of vermin which have fled from enclosures where no food is to be found into more open country where rabbits and birds flourish. " We all surmise, They this thing and I that. Whom shall my soul believe ? " Mr. Glover or the naturalist ?
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