6 PREFACE 



exterminating progress ; whilst North America has 

 already lost some of its ancient types, and is fast 

 losing the remainder: South America alone re- 

 tains its prehistoric fauna in greatest completeness, 

 although even here the sad work of extermination 

 has commenced. Birds have suifered severely in 

 this general spoliation, and their extermination and 

 persecution furnish material for some of the saddest 

 chapters in the annals of ornithology. 



In the present volume an effort has been made 

 not only to focus in a popular form our knowledge 

 of the species we have lost and are still likely to 

 lose, but to excite a greater interest in the protec- 

 tion of birds, particularly in those species, at home 

 and abroad, that are more or less threatened with 

 extermination at the present time. 



So far as British birds are concerned, we have 

 dealt with all the recently extinct and threatened 

 species; but of course it would be utterly im- 

 possible, within the limits of this small volume, to 

 treat exotic species with the same fulness. We 

 have, however, carefully selected a few of the most 

 interesting and desperate cases on which to hang 

 our plea for the better protection of all. Some of 

 the most interesting extinct species have also been 

 included. 



