Foreign Birds at Large in England 



received into the society of the good-natured and 

 sociable starlings. As to birds of prey, they are 

 so rare in England that they need not be con- 

 sidered in this connection. Almost any bird 

 likely to be imported has had to run the gauntlet 

 of falcons and sparrow-hawks in its own country, 

 since the distribution of these types of raptores is 

 practically world-wide. 



What effect our climate may have on the birds 

 is very hard to tell, but it seems unlikely to be 

 the cause of death through cold to species which 

 can endure it in captivity ; while with regard to 

 the food supply, if such delicate little birds as the 

 Dartford warbler and bearded reedling can find a 

 sufficiency without leaving us, it seems curious 

 that tougher ones cannot do so. It is quite 

 possible that some birds are drawn away and lost 

 in the stream of migration, and this is probably 

 what happened to my rosy pastors, and possibly 

 the Pekin robins also. 



That mighty hunter " Ass-with-a-gun " is un- 

 doubtedly a deadly enemy to introduced birds, if 

 large and conspicuous, as escaped cranes and 

 pelicans find, but it seems to me that in the case 

 of such birds as I have mentioned, the migratory 

 instinct comes into play ; almost the only birds 

 one can depend on acclimatising here are the 

 pheasant family, which are incapable of distant 

 flight. 



177 m 



