KNOX'S ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES IW SUSSEX.. THERE is a charm in
the slightest original works on natural history, which it is difficult to account for. It may be said that it arises from the freshness of the observation—the direct manner in which the writers
• Ornithological Rambles in Sussex ; with a Systematic Catalogue of the Birds of that County, and Remarks on their Local Distribution. By A. E. Knox, M A., F.Z.S. Published by Van Voorst.
draw from nature: but this characteristic would seem equally applicable to tours, which are very often flat, or to professed "sketches from na- ture," which are frequently the dullest and emptiest compositions con- ceivable. The real secrets of the attraction probably are knowledge and a pursuit, coupled with the delight felt by the sedentary or the culti- vated reader in the subject of wild creatures and the scenery they frequent. No man will brave the exposure and fatigue of study. ing natural history in the wilds and the woods without a strong liking—a " genins ' for the pursuit ; for though " the labour we delight in physics pain," there must be delight to render labour equal to that of a campaigner agreeable. Neither does a man jump to the pursuit : he begins by degrees, and trains himself to know- ledge both theoretical and practical. By this means, he brings a certain amount of skilled observation to bear not only upon the immediate objects of his pursuit but upon their accessories. He is an artist without intending it. The sky, the sea and its coast, the marsh, the wood, and the cultivated district, are looked at with the instinctive discrimination of habit. They form appropriate baokgrounds to his figures, not from any painterlike skill in selecting, but simply because he always finds them there in nature, and he learns by experience to know what are essential and what accidental. Time, too, is a favouring ele- ment. A tourist, walking through a town while he waits for a meal, or steaming rapidly through a country, will tell you all about it off-hand. The man who undertakes merely to furnish a catalogue of plants, can only attain his end by reiterated examination. The researches of a naturalist are in themselves a species of expedition, and often lead to little incidents and adventures.
Ornithological Rambles in Sussex is an example of these remarks. The form is rather artificial, taking the much-used shape of letters to a friend ; and the artifice is not very well managed. When Mr. Knox is taken from his immediate subject, be exhibits a tendency to writing with- out much of the writer's skill. His field is limited to a single county, whose coast is studded by watering-places from Bognor to Hastings, and whose length and breadth are traversed by railways. Such, however, is the power of nature when closely studied and plainly exhibited, that a very agreeable volume is produced from such unpromising premises. The mischief of Brighton loungers and puffing locomotives is limited to a narrow space ; perhaps the railways, by driving away the permeating stage-coaches, render the smaller places and retired districts of a country less accessible than before. Sussex, too, is more promising than would seem at first sight. The hills defy the locomotives ; the vallies have a natural monopoly. The inlet of the sea called Pagham Harbour, near Chichester, and the four rivers that traverse the county—the Aran, the Adur' the Ouse, and the Cuckmere—flowing through marshy willies, and farming at their embouchures extensive swamps in the wintry season, are attractive spots for water-fowl and sea-birds ; the wooded lands 'of the Weald afford shelter to many species that require cover; the culti- vated grounds may vie for the purposes of the bird-fancier with any other in England; while the Downs, and their proximity to the sea, attract rare species, and are a resting-place for birds of passage. Who would think that within little more than three hours' journey from London such a scene as the following can be reached ; though we should advise no one but the naturalist or sportsman to go to it—others had better be satisfied to read about it.
"The considerable peninsula which extends to the South-west of Bognor, ter- minating in the headland of Selsey Bill, is perhaps as little known to the world as any portion of Great Britain, lying as it does far to the South of the more fre- quented highways; but it comprises a great extent of sea-coast, dotted here and there with patches of brushwood and rough copses of stunted oak—tempting places of rest to our vernal migratory birds on their first arrival from the Con- tinent—and also includes within its limits a wide-spreading inlet of the sea, known as Pagbam Harbour, which might almost be termed a great salt lake; for the entrance to the haven is so narrow and shallow, and the channel within so tortuous and uncertain, that none but small vessels of trifling tonnage can attempt a passage; and even of these the number and the arrivals are so few and.far be- tween, that they only arrest the attention of the observer as they cautiously thread their difficalt way to deposit or receive a cargo of coals or corn at the hamlet of Siddlesham, which is seen rising, like a little Dutch village, from the flat shores in the distance. "Here, in the dead long summer days, when not a breath of air has been stirring, have I frequently remained for hours, stretched on the hot shin- gle, and gazed at the osprey as he soared aloft, or watched the little islands of mud at the turn of the tide, as each gradually rose from the receding waters and was successively taken possession of by flocks of sand-pipers and ring-dottrels, after various circumvolutions on the part of each detachment, now simultaneously presenting their snowy breasts to the sunshine, now suddenly turning their dusky backs, so that the dazzled eye lost sight of them from the contrast ; while the pro- longed cry of the titterel, and the melancholy note of the peewit from the dis- tant swamp, have mingled with the scream of the tern and the taunting laugh of the gull. " Here have I watched the oyster-catcher as he flew from point to point, and cautiously waded into the shallow water; and the patient heron, that pattern of a fisherman, as with retracted neck, and eyes fixed on vacancy, he has stood for hours without a single snap, motionless as a statue. Here, too, have I pursued the guillemot, or craftily endeavoured to cut off the retreat of the diver, by moor- ing my boat across the narrow passage through which alone he could return to the open sea without having recourse to his reluctant wings. Nor can I forget how often, during the Siberian winter of 1838, when 'a whole gale,' as the sailors have it, has been blowing from the North-east, I used to take up my position on the long and narrow ridge of shingle which separated this paradise from the raging waves without, and sheltered behind a hillock of sea-weed, with my long duck-gun and a trusty double, or half buried in a hole in the sand. I used to watch the legions of water-birds as they neared the shore, and dropped distrust- fully among the breakers, at a distance from the desired haven, until gaming con- fidence from accession of numbers, some of the bolder spirits—the pioneers of the army—would flap their wings, rise from the white waves, and make for the calm water. Here they come! Already is the pied golden-eye preeminent among the advancing party; now the pochard, with his copper-coloured head and neck, may distinguished from the darker scaup-duck; already the finger is on the
trig-
ger, when, perhaps, they suddenly verge to the right and left, far beyond the reach of my longest barrel, or it may be, coma swishing overhead, and leave companion or two struggling on the shingle or floating on the shallow waters or the harbour."
Of the local advantages of Sussex Mr. Knox has availed himself, not cleverly, but naturally. He has traversed the county in all directions, at all seasons; he has studied the habitude and visitants of its leading divi- sions; and he presents the reader with the cream of his experience, some- times in a generalized picture such as we have just quoted, at other times in the form of a particular anecdote or incident if important enough for presentation. In introductions or digressions his style is not of the best; but as soon as he is engaged in his real subject, he writes with spirit and some degree of closeness. An example may be taken from an account of an odd kind of lark-shooting near Brighton. Mr. Knox rather slights it ; but it is surely as good as a " battue " ; which, however, our ornitho- logist also condemns.
"The soi-disant sportsman provides himsiT with a certain implement called a lark-glass, which may be fashioned in different ways according to the taste or whim of the fabricator. The following is a rough sketch from a highly approved article of this kind—a regular syren in its way—which had lured many thousands to their doom.
"A piece of wood about a foot and a half long, four inches deep, and three inches wide, is planed off on two sides so as to resemble the roof of a well-known toy yclept a Noah's ark, but more than twice as long. In the sloping sides are set several bits of looking-glass. A "long iron spindle, the lower end of which is sharp and fixed in the ground, passes freely through the centre; on this the in- strument turns, and even spins rapidly when a string has been attached and is pulled by the performer, who generally stands at a distance of fifteen or twenty yards from the decoy. The reflection of the sun's ray from these little revolving mirrors seems to possess a mysterious attraction for the larks; for they descend in great numbers from a considerable height in the air, hover over the spot, and suffer themselves to be shot at repeatedly without attempting to leave the field or to continue their course.
"It is during the autumnal migration of the larks, which generally commences about the 20th of September and continues until the end of October, that this mode of warfare is in vogue. The direction taken by the larks in this periodical flight is exactly the reverse of that observed by almost all the warblers at the same season, being from East to West; and a moderate breeze from the latter point, accompanied by sunshine, insures what is called 'good sport' by those who can find amusement in this occupation. The fields in the neighbourhood of the coast on both sides of the town are haunted by various parties of shooters from the hour of sunrise until ten or eleven o'clock, about which time the great flights of larks cease or diminish, and there is no small degree of competition among the performers for what are considered the best places; four or five parties sometimes occupying one field, and as many shooters being attached to one lark- glass: but notwithstanding the crowd, and the noise of voices mingled with the continual roar of guns, the infatuated birds advance stupidly to their doom, hover in numbers over the decoy, and present the easiest possible mark to the veriest tyro that ever pulled a trigger. " To any one, however, witnessing it for the first time, the spectacle is suffi- ciently curious. Perhaps at this moment, the shooters, having all reloaded during a pause in the battle, are awaiting the approach of the next detach- ment. The newly-arrived stranger casts his eyes about and sees heaps of the dead and dying, but nothing as yet on the wing to explain the meaning of all those anxious upturned glancei that he notices around him. Presently a voice exclaims,' Here they are, look out !' and a cluster of dark specks becomes visible at a great distance. In a few moments he perceives that this is a flock of larks: but surely it is not possible that they will notice that miserable toy which is now spinning rapidly, urged by the frantic exertions of a gentleman in bright yellow gaiters and bran-new shooting-coat, crossed with a virgin shot-belt, who pulls the string violently with one baud while with the other he wields his full-cocked gun as carelessly as if it were a shillelagh ! He is mistaken: they suddenly descend with rapidly closed pinions, to within a few yards of the very spot where he stands, or perhaps to a rival lure in the same or in an adjoining field, and hover- ing over it in apparent delight and admiration, patiently suffer themselves to be shot at and massacred in considerable numbers.'
As is usual with Mr. Van Voorat's publications, the Rambles have some spirited illustrations ; but skeleton district maps are required to follow the smaller localities. True, they can be traced on a good county map ; but snob is not always possessed—when it is, may not always be at hand. Whatever illustration is requisite for the due understanding of a book should be contained within it.
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