SAVrS WARBLER 45 



numbers had been steadily diminishing for years 

 before the species was discovered. Its fate should 

 serve as a warning, for we have other excessively 

 local species in our midst — the Marsh Warbler, the 

 Dartford Warbler, the Chough, and the Red-necked 

 Phalarope, to name but a few — which may become 

 extinct as rapidly, not necessarily through the 

 destruction of their favourite haunts, but from 

 direct persecution. Savi's Warbler also sadly 

 confirms the fact previously dwelt upon, that the 

 supply of birds (whether sedentary or migratory 

 species) in a district is by no means inexhaustible, 

 and in the present case must have been a very 

 limited one indeed. This Warbler still breeds in 

 the fens of Holland, but from similar causes — the 

 drainage of its aquatic haunts — is much less 

 common than formerly. All allowance being made 

 for the excessively skulking habits of Savi's 

 Warbler, there can be little likelihood of its ever 

 being detected in our country again, and no human 

 agency can ever restore it to our avifauna. We 

 will now proceed to give a few brief particulars 

 concerning the life history of this vanished species. 

 Savi's Warbler appears everywhere to be a 

 singularly local bird, and breeds in various suitable 

 districts of Central and Southern Europe, and in 



