DISTRIBUTION OF THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK, 273 



lishing, in the Zoologist, a list of the birds of Leicestershire, 

 but it is not yet completed.* 



It will thus be seen that Suffolk stands very high among 

 the English counties in the number of its birds. 



If a scientific election committee were to scrutinize the 

 lists, they would find it an arduous business to arrange 

 their order. There can be very little doubt that more 

 birds have been seen in Yorkshire, as was to be expected, 

 and in Cornwall, Norfolk, and Suffolk than in any other 

 counties whose avifauna is well known. 



It is to be hoped that the birds of Suffolk, and those also 

 of every other part of England, may suffer less diminution 

 by wanton destruction in the future than they have done 

 in the past. The Act of Parliament for the Preservation of 

 Wild Birds has already done much for them, and it has 

 been remarked that it is probably in consequence of that 

 Act that the song-birds and several other species, for 

 example, the Ducks, Gulls, and Plovers, have recently 

 increased in numbers in Suffolk. The birds of prey, 

 Hawks and Owls, do less mischief to game than has been 

 supposed ; they not only do much good by destroying rats 

 and mice and wood-pigeons, but they also kill weakly game 

 birds, which are the most easily taken, and so cause the 

 survival of the fittest ; so that the keepers do more harm 

 than good by waging a war of utter extermination against 

 them. Certain species which do much mischief in the garden 

 at some times of the year, do also much good at other 

 times by destroying mischievous insects, and ought therefore 

 to be kept down only moderately. In France the wholesale 

 destruction of small birds is said to have produced disastrous 

 effects. In fact we may say generally that any considerable 

 disturbance of the balance of nature leads to more harm 

 than good. Even naturalists, more particularly collectors 

 of eggs, who must now be contented with nothing less than 

 a clutch, should follow their pursuit with caution and 

 moderation. 



* From what he tells me, I think we may roughly estimate the number of 

 Leicestershire birds at 200 or nearly so. 



