INTRODUCTION 29 



the Francolin of Europe may be quoted as cases 

 in point. A very large percentage of the birds 

 whose absence from the British Islands as breed- 

 ing or indigenous species we have now to deplore, 

 probably could not have been preserved to us had 

 the most elaborate means for their protection been 

 devised. They were victims to the results of 

 advancing civilisation and improvement — destined 

 by the altered conditions of existence that such 

 changes involved, to disappear from certain areas 

 in which it became impossible for them to survive. 

 On the other hand, there are certain lost species that 

 might still have continued to find a place in our 

 avifauna had reasonable protection been granted to 

 them. These, too, have passed from our area never 

 normally to return. There are certain other 

 interesting species still left to us, but extermina- 

 tion awaits them in the by no means distant 

 future, unless steps be speedily taken to preserve 

 them. 



The unscientific reader may naturally ask why 

 comparatively so few birds have become extinct 

 in the British Islands, where the influence of 

 civilisation has been so prolonged and so acute, 

 whilst so many have suffered in New Zealand 

 and other remote islands whose colonisation 



