EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 



There are countries with a less fertile soil and 

 a worse climate than ours, yet richer in bird life. 

 Nevertheless, England is not poor; the species 

 are not few in number, and some are extremely 

 abundant. Unfortunately many of the finer kinds 

 have been too much sought after; persecuted first 

 for their beauty, then for their rarity, until now 

 we are threatened with their total destruction. 

 As these kinds become unobtainable, those which 

 stand next in the order of beauty and rarity are 

 persecuted in their turn; and in a country as 

 densely populated as ours, where birds cannot 

 hide themselves from human eyes, such persecution 

 must eventually cause their extinction. Mean- 

 while the bird population does not decrease. 

 Every place in nature, like every property in 



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