BRITAIN DESERTED BY SOME BIRDS. 139 



here : perhaps, because they are too much interrupted 

 in a populous country ; for it appears that birds of a 

 shy disposition sometimes leave their usual station for 

 the sake of privacy, when the number of inhabitants 

 increases. Naturalists assert, that when great part of 

 our island was a mere waste — a tract of woods and 

 fens, many species of birds, which now migrate at the 

 breeding season, remained in full confidence through- 

 out the year. 



The egret, a species of heron now seldom found in 

 this country, in former times abounded here in great 

 numbers ; and the crane, that has totally forsaken us, 

 bred familiarly in our marshes, as, like other cloven- 

 footed water-fowl, (the heron excepted,) they make 

 their nest upon the ground, exposed to the rude touch 

 of every intruder. When the number of people in- 

 creased, forests were cut down, swamps drained, and 

 the plough made inroads where the ground had never 

 before been turned up : these operations disturbed the 

 solitary haunts of the timid wild-fowl, and by de- 

 grees drove them to seek a situation more congenial 

 to their habits; whilst those species that nestle on 

 the almost inaccessible rocks that in some parts im- 

 pend over the British seas still breed there in vast 

 numbers, having nothing to fear from man, except the 

 rare disturbance of a few desperadoes who venture 

 their lives in search of birds' eggs. 



