1 84 THE MIGRATION OF BRITISH BIRDS 



serving and mania for collecting "British" specimens, 

 together with our rapid increase of population, have 

 cost us dear, so far as some of our most interesting 

 birds are concerned. Many of these species formerly 

 resident in, or regular migrants to, our islands have 

 been completely exterminated, or only survive in the 

 northern thinly populated and least cultivated districts. 

 As may naturally be surmised, nearly all the smaller 

 birds have maintained their ground, even in many cases 

 increased their range and their numbers, but it is at the 

 expense of larger and perhaps more interesting birds. 

 The species in question are named below. 



No less than eight of these (marked b}' an asterisk) 

 have become absolutely extinct as breeding species in 

 the' British Islands; five others (marked by an obelisk) 

 have been banished from England and now only breed 

 in Scotland ; two of them, however, nesting in Ireland. 

 The remaining eight arc very locally distributed, but 

 still continue to breed in our islands, although there can 

 be little doubt that most of them will eventually dis- 

 appear if some special -means for protecting them are 

 not quickly devised. Every naturalist must deplore the 

 absence of the Bittern, the Spoonbill, the Crane, the 

 Great Bustard and other interesting birds from our 

 avifauna ; all the more so, for in perhaps every instance 

 by a little judicious management the species might 



