EXTERMINATJON OF ANIMALS. 195 



/ When this country presented a more extensive and secure abode for 

 birds of a solitary disposition, it is probable that several of those species 

 of owls, now so rarely seen, were common in it. The long-eared owl 

 (Stri,v otus), the eagle owl (Slrix bubo), the snowy owl (Slrix nycted), 

 and the little owl (Strix passerina), are extremely scarce; and the 

 only localities for the less rare, but yet not common, short-eared owl 

 (Slrix brachyotus), are Norfolk, the northern counties of England, the 

 north of Scotland and its islands. 



The bad taste which induces proprietors of land to destroy old trees 

 on account of their decayed state, is supposed by Selby to have occa- 

 sioned the redstart (Sylvia phcenicurus) to have become scarce in Nor- 

 thumberland. " For some years past," says he, " the redstart has 

 become of comparatively rare occurrence in Northumberland; but 

 without any apparent cause for this change in the line of its migration, 

 unless it may be attributed to greater attention having been latterly 

 bestowed upon the management of woods, &c., and a consequent defi- 

 ciency of old and decaying trees, for the purpose of nidification, and 

 stone-walls having, during the same period, so much given way to the 

 use of hedges for inclosure." 



The grey lag goose (Anser palustrix) has, in consequence of the ex- 

 tending prevalence of cultivation *, become very scarce in the fens of 

 Lincolnshire, and the other places indicated by the earlier writers as 

 their breeding quarters. " The draining and cultivation of these 

 marshy tracts," says Selby, " under progressive agricultural improve- 

 ment, and the increasing population of the kingdom, has, however, 

 banished these birds from their native haunts ; and they are now, com- 

 paratively speaking, of rare occurrence, and, as far as I can ascertain, 

 only met with in small flocks during the winter." 



The dotterel (Charadius morinellus, Linnaeus) has become nearly 

 extirpated in some parts of England in which it was once common, 

 owing to its having been shot in great numbers for the table. But a 

 less useful purpose, it is said, has for some time been causing it to 



* With reference to the scarcity of this species of goose, owing to the appropria- 

 tion of their favourite haunts to the purposes of cultivation, I may perhaps be ex- 

 cused quoting the following pithy piece of old rhyme, which on the present occa- 

 sion is very apropos. 



" 'Tis bad for either man or woman 

 To steal a goose from off a common ; 

 But who can plead that man's excuse 

 W ho steals the common from the goose ?" 



