by the roads, or on stone walls in which they
build their nests, and even in the heaps of stones, as also in the rails
of bark. I remember that beautiful bird, the kingfisher, by the Forest
brooks, but now you never see one. Flocks of rooks sometimes come into
the neighbourhood when the oaks are much blighted, to feed on the grubs,
and in such quantities that the trees are quite black with them. They
come from a distance, as they are not seen at other times, and never
breed in the Forest."

Mr. Gee, speaking of the birds which he has observed on the north-east
side of the Forest, states--"The raven is seen more frequently in the
neighbourhood than in most parts of England: his croak over head is not
at all an uncommon sound. A pair of buzzards will occasionally circle
aloft for a considerable time. The snipe is found very early on the
Forest, so much so that I have known in the month of July six killed in a
day. The jack snipe particularly abounds about 'the Dam Pool.' The
bittern has been twice shot near the same spot within the last twenty
years. The seagull skims over occasionally from the Severn side. The
water-ousel is frequently met with on the Forest brooks. The cross-bill
comes sometimes into the neighbourhood. The turtle-dove particularly
abounds, so that in early summer our woods are in a charm with their soft
purring. The fern owls are very numerous. I once came on a considerable
flock of the rare bird, the siskin. The titmouse tribe are abundant; but
we never see the rarer species, the bearded or the crested tit. The
chats and the wheatear are of course common. The woodpeckers are very
common: even the two pied species might be obtained here with very little
trouble. We are all over willow wrens in the spring. On the whole, I
should say that it is a neighbourhood unfavourable for the observation of
birds; and yet, were an observant naturalist to come among us, he would
soon astonish us by what he would discover."

THE TIMBER.

Most strangers visiting the Forest do so in the expectation of seeing
groves of stately timber covering the ground in every direction, and are
much disappointed when they find the greater part to consist of oaks,
barely fifty years old, comprised in enclosures, and the remainder of the
surface disfigured by furnaces, collieries, and groups of inferior
buildings. The Forest as it existed in the days of the Norman and
Plantagenet kings, William I. and John, who