THE AVOCET 



{recur viros tra a voce tta ) 



TTERE again we have a species which has been 

 -^ wantonly exterminated in Britain during 

 the first quarter of the present century. The 

 records of the persecution of this beautiful and 

 curious bird are sad and exasperating in the 

 extreme. Can it be believed that at the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century the pretty, gentle, 

 inoffensive Avocet was one of our commonest 

 summer migrants to the fens and marshes of the 

 eastern counties ? Now — and for nearly eighty 

 years, too — it is lost to us for ever ; for no human 

 efforts can restore it to the Fens again ! Previous 

 to that date there is evidence to show that its 

 distribution in this country was much wider still. 

 At the close of the eighteenth century the Avocet 

 bred on Romney marshes, whilst there are earlier 

 records of its presence in the Severn district and 

 in Staffordshire. The last -known colony of 



