Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/139

 but in many places the encroaching tide has not only annihilated the hills themselves, but even usurped their sites. The town of Fleetwood is erected on a foundation of sand, and several extensive mounds of that nature exist in its vicinity. Below this light superficial substance, in some places very deep and thrown into its elevated forms by the long-continued action of the wind, is a subsoil resembling that found in other parts of the Fylde, and consisting of a clayey loam and alluvial matter. The diminutive size of those trees growing near the coast is due both to the openness and bleakness of the site, and the deleterious effects of the saline particles contained in the air; whilst the peculiar leaning from the water of their branches, and in many instances their trunks, is caused by the mechanical action or pressure of the strong winds and sea breezes prevailing from the west during three-fourths of the year.

Marton Mere, situated in the township indicated by its name, was formerly a lake of no inconsiderable extent, but drainage and the accumulation within its basin of sediment have reduced it to its present comparatively unimportant dimensions. Traces of the more extensive boundaries of the sheet of water in former days are still discernible along its banks, and at one time, it is stated, the wheel of a water-mill near to the village of Great Marton, was turned by a stream from the mere. The right of fishery in the lake, for such it was in the earlier periods, was the subject of legal contest in the reign of Edward III., and in 1590 John Singleton, of Staining Hall, held the privilege.

There are few districts of similar area which can boast so many and such interesting varieties of the feathered tribes, either natives or visitants, as the Fylde. Some of the rarest sea-fowl are occasionally seen along the coasts, while the fields and hedge-*rows abound with most of the melodious songsters of our island. Amongst the number of both land and sea birds which have been observed in the neighbourhood, either during the whole year or only in certain parts of it, may be mentioned the following:—

ORDER—RAPTORES OR RAPACIOUS BIRDS.

FALCONIDÆ OR FALCON FAMILY.

Tinnunculus Alaudarus   Kestrel               Common Accipiter Nisus         Sparrow Hawk          Common Circus ceruginosus      Moor Buzzard          Very rare