X INTRODUCTORY. 



the same thing goes on for another ten years, there will 

 not be a large tree alive in the park. 



The same causes are at work in a less degree in many 

 other districts, but on the whole I do not think that 

 birds generally are decreasing ; and the greater scarcity 

 of the Goldfinch, for instance, which feeds on the thistles 

 of waste lands, is balanced by the greater plentifulness of 

 the Hawfinch, which prefers a more cultivated country. 

 Finally, if the game-preserver will lay aside some of 

 his truculence in respect of species which occasionally 

 diminish his stock, if the denizens of towns will dis- 

 courage the bird-catching fraternity and be content to 

 hear the Linnet and the Bullfinch only in their natural 

 haunts, and if the specimen-hunter will try to be con- 

 tent with skins which are not local, there is no reason to 

 expect any approach to extinction of the species which 

 are now on the list. 



The avifauna of Lancashire comprises 259 species, 

 which may be sufficiently classed under the following 

 heads : — 



259 



The residents are all annual breeders within the county 

 limits except the Lesser Black-backed and Herring- 

 Gulls, but as these nest within a very short distance of 

 the border, they may fairly be included in the class. 

 The Peregrine Falcon, Common Buzzard, Hen-Harrier, 

 Nuthatch, Goldfinch, Eaven, Eock-Dove, Water-Eail, 



* [In 1st Ed., 75. Add, Pm-ple Heron, Sociable Plover, two 

 Petrels, and Black-necked Grebe ; deduct SwaUow-tailed Kite and 

 Cream-coloured Courser. — Ed.] 



