RECENT EMIGRATION 185 



have been preserved to us. It is too late now in many 

 cases for us ever to hope to see these beautiful birds 

 re-estabhshed in their ancient homes, or in what 

 remnant of their haunts still remains untouched or 

 unimproved by modern methods. Could we turn half 

 England once more into a vast morass, the Laws of 

 dispersal would forbid the Bustard, the Spoonbill, and 

 the Wild Goose to enter. As colonists they will never 

 return again, for now our islands are beyond the limits 

 of their normal migrations, and our wide water areas, 

 so long as they continue, will ever act as a barrier to 

 successful re-emigration. The Golden Eagle, the White- 

 tailed Eagle, the Dotterel, and the Ruff are the only 

 species whose lines of migration now cross our islands 

 at all dominantly, and they are the only species that are 

 ever likely to re-people the areas from which they have 

 been banished, although even this is very problematical, 

 notwithstanding any and every inducement we might 

 •offer them to do so, Tiie Short-eared Owl, the ]\Iarsh 

 Harrier, Montagu's Harrier, the Kite, the Honey Buz- 

 zard, the Osprey, the Ruff, the Black-tailed Godwit, and 

 the Black Tern we might yet save, were strict protec- 

 tion given them ; but the few individuals that are from 

 time to time destroyed at their old breeding grounds 

 are assuredly among the last of their kind that will 

 ever visit us with the object of reproducing their 

 species, and if we still continue to kill them or to 

 drive them thoughtlessly away, the opportunity of re- 

 taining them in our land will soon be gone for ever. 

 They are the last remnants of the individuals whose 

 lines of emigration extended to our area, and taking 

 into consideration our insular position, they are the 



