INTRODUCTION. 17 
and Blackbirds in many districts, and the inconvenient 
increase of the House Sparrow, are largely owing to 
the systematic repression of the Sparrow Hawk. There 
ean be little doubt, too, that Ring Doves would be less 
numerous if the larger Hawks were unmolested; and 
Merlins, were they left in peace, would diminish the 
numbers of Meadow Pipits, Twites, Wheatears, and 
other small birds of the moorlands. 
A more important factor in the economy of many 
species is the existence of the coverts indispensable 
to the preservation of the Pheasant. There is little 
natural woodland in the Cheshire Plain, and were it 
not for the care lavished on the Pheasant, the area 
at present occupied by woods and coverts would be 
almost entirely replaced by grazing or arable land. 
Many birds of various species find in the coverts the 
security and seclusion necessary to them in the breeding 
season. The Hawfinch and Turtle Dove, especially, 
would in all probability be hardly known in Cheshire, 
were the coverts absent; whilst the Jay, persecuted 
though it is, owes its very existence to the privacy of 
these retreats. 
LITERATURE. 
Prior to 1854, when the Fauna of Liverpool was 
published, practically nothing had been written on 
the subject of Cheshire birds, and ornithologists of 
to-day labour under great disadvantages, having no 
record of the avifauna of the county when the con- 
ditions were widely different from those of the present 
time. Even during the last half-century great changes 
have taken place; many species have become extinct, 
whilst others have established themselves or increased 
in numbers, and there can be no doubt that similar 
B 
