322 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



The Fork-tailed Petrel (Thalassidroma Leachii). 

 Occasionally cast on shore in rougli weather. A specimen was 

 taken at Stranraer in the winter of 1863. In the west of Scot- 

 land generally this species is found to be about as numerous as 

 the storm petrel. 



The Storm Petrel {Thalassidroma ijelagka). 

 During the severest winter storms, this diminutive bird of the 

 ocean occasionally loses its reckoning, and is blown on shore. We 

 have seen specimens taken at Kilbirnie and Kilmarnock, and 

 other towns at some distance inland. It breeds in limited 

 numbers on Ailsa Craig; and we have seen it flying in small 

 groups about midway between that rock and the mainland. 



concluding remarks. 

 In closing this catalogue of the Birds of Ayrshire and Wig- 

 townshire, we cannot withhold the expression of a belief, in which 

 we trust that most persons interested in ornithological pursuits 

 will readily join, that the time has now arrived when the protec- 

 tion of various classes of birds has become a paramount duty. 

 We have only to consider the vast diminution of species that has 

 taken place during the last thirty years in order to learn the mis- 

 chief that has resulted from one cause alone — viz., the over-zealous 

 destruction of creatures that are supposed to be enemies to game. 

 In the exercise of their daily avocations, gamekeepers throughout 

 the whole of these districts have, in fact, done more to thin our 

 bird population than any other class of men. Birds of prey 

 especially have suffered to an almost inconceivable extent — eagles, 

 falcons, buzzards, hawks, and owls having been subjected to such 

 continual persecution as to be now in some places on the verge of 

 extinction as native species. Making due allowance for the ravages 

 committed by some of the Raptorial and Corvine species, we believe 

 that many of the birds which fall victims to the game preserver's 

 vengeance are totally innocent of the charges laid against them. 

 Owls, for example, are for the most part guiltless — their principal 

 prey consisting of rats, mice, and other vermin that require to be 

 kept in check. Nightjars and dippers are also harmless; and even 

 the Kestrel falcon, which shares the fate of the hooded crow or the 

 polecat, is not only harmless but useful as a devourer of mice and 

 beetles, thus proving itself a friend instead of an enemy. 



