INTEODUCTION. 19 



sliankj Black Tern, and some species of wild-ducks wliich are 

 now only migrants or visitors, may have bred at one time on 

 Otmoor before it was enclosed. The trips of Dotterel, once 

 seen regularly on our hills and downs on their passage in 

 spring and autumn, are now more rarely observed and much 

 less widely diffused, and the Stone Curlew no longer rears 

 its young on the stony fields on the hills about Sarsden and 

 Chadlington, and has probably entirely ceased to breed in 

 the county save in one locality in the extreme south. The 

 Quail perhaps visits us less often, and in fewer numbers, than 

 in former years — a fact observed in many parts of England. 

 The Bearded Tit, which probably at no very distant time 

 inhabited the reed-grown margins of the Isis, has entu-ely 

 disappeared. The Nig-htingale, from some unknown cause, 

 has within the last twenty or five-and-twenty years greatly 

 decreased in the north of the county, and is now extremely 

 scarce where formerly it used to be heard every year in some 

 numbers. The Barn Owl holds its own, but with difficulty, 

 in the face of the persecution to which it is subjected ; while 

 the Goldfinch, which as a breeding species had a few years 

 since become very scarce, has within the last four or five 

 years (probably in part at least owing to the Wild Birds 

 Protection Acts) been steadily increasing again, and at the 

 present time is fairly numerous. The Red-legged Partridge, 

 w^hich was very rare fifty years ago, is steadily increasing and 

 spreading, and is now generally distributed over most parts of 

 the county. The Hawfinch is increasing, and may now be 

 considered a permanent resident instead of a rather rare 

 winter visitor only. The Woodpigeon or Ringdove has 

 increased slightly of late, and the Starling and Sparrow to 

 a considerable extent, especially the former. The increase of 

 these two birds must in part at least be attributed to the 

 destruction of their natural enemies the hawks, the Sparrow 

 Hawk especially being much scarcer than it formerly was. 

 There has been of late years a great diminution in the 

 number of wildfowl visiting us in winter, consequent upon 

 the more perfect drainage of the meadows, and of Otmoor. 

 The wildfowl remaining to breed have become numerically 



c a 



