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, as Mr. MacCulloch said, many orchards have been
destroyed to make room for more profitable crops or for orchard-houses,
still there are many orchards left in the Island. I think, however,
many, if not all the cherry orchards (amongst which the Golden Orioles
apparently at one time luxuriated) are gone. There is also still a great
deal of hedgerow timber, none of it indeed very large, but in places
very thick; in fact, I could point out miles of hedges in Guernsey where
the trees, mostly elm, grow so thick together that it would be nearly
impossible to pick out a place where one could squeeze one's horse
between the trees without rubbing one's knees on one side or the other,
probably on both, against them, if one found it necessary to ride across
the country. True, on a great extent of the higher part of the Island,