Handbook to the natural history of Cambridgeshire / edited by J.E. Marr and A.E. Shipley.

Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook to the natural history of Cambridgeshire / edited by J.E. Marr and A.E. Shipley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    88/310 (page 76)
    the consequent extension of cultivation to large areas formerly occupied chiefly by sallow-bushes, reed-beds and sedges, the state of affairs has entirely changed since the beginning of the nine- teenth century, and Cambridgeshire can now lay claim to but little of her ancient glory as a paradise for birds of the moor and morass. Wicken Sedge Fen and the surrounding grass lands still provide breeding quarters for an occasional pair of Montagu’s Harriers or of Short-eared Owls, hut instances such as these only serve to emphasize to the student of the past the great changes that have taken place in the condition of the country and their effect upon its feathered inhabitants. Before entering upon a detailed account of the species of Birds now or formerly found in the county, it may he well to state briefly the character of the immediate neighbourhood and its surroundings, which has so decided an effect upon their presence and numbers \ The great ‘Bedford Level,’ containing the whole of the ancient Fens, and including the Cam valley gault tract, occupies all Cambridgeshire north of an imaginary line from about New- market to Huntingdon; here large woods are conspicuous by their absence, and the trees, chiefly Black Poplars and Willows, either form long shelter strips only a few yards wide, with occasional isolated clumps, or stand in rows along the side of some watercourse; the vegetation in uncultivated spots is tall and rank, rushes are a common feature of the landscape, and wide ‘lodes’ of water connected by narrower channels constantly take the place of walls or hedges. Southward of this tract comes an area composed of gault, chalk and chalk marl, topped by gravel or to the west by clay, which extends from the Fen districts to another imaginary line from near Newmarket to Biggleswade ; here are woods of con- siderable size, consisting of hard-wood trees, mingled in places with larch or fir, and the general appearance is that of many of our Midland counties. ^ A fuller account will be found in the Introduction to Babington’s Flora of Cambridgeshire.