Country Life

100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE April 2, 1921

ON the loch of Skail in Orkney I remember a whooper swan still living writes of a pair of herring gulls taken from the nest by a farmer in 1771, which were still living in 1846, but departed soon after the old man died. Professor Newton () mentions a pair of blue tits which used a bottle in a tree as a nesting site for a hundred years; and Mr Howard () the case of a pair of wry-necks using the same nesting site for sixty years, as the occupier of the cottage, aged eighty, remembers the birds when a small boy.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Country Life

Country Life2 min read
The Legacy Sir John Soane And His Museum
EXASPERATED and despairing at the provocative behaviour of his sons, Sir John Soane (1753–1837) decided towards the end of his life to make the British public his heir. His eldest son, John—whom he had hoped would follow him as an architect, but who
Country Life6 min read
A Hungry Heart
WHEN the Nazis mounted an exhibition in Munich in 1937, their purpose was not to celebrate art, but condemn it. The so-called ‘Entartete Kunst’ or ‘Degenerate Art’ show was a macabre blockbuster designed to represent what was perceived to be the very
Country Life4 min read
Smart Thinking
A private family garden near Godalming in Surrey IMAGINE standing in a garden for the first time and trying to work out what it can become. Will it be minimal or traditional? Will the planting be cottagey, Mediterranean or jungly? How is the garden g

Related Books & Audiobooks