EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 



There are countries with a less fertile soil and 

 a worse climate than ours, yet richer in bird life. 

 Nevertheless, England is not poor; the species 

 are not few in number, and some are extremely 

 abundant. Unfortunately many of the finer kinds 

 have been too much sought after; persecuted first 

 for their beauty, then for their rarity, until now 

 we are threatened with their total destruction. 

 x^s these kinds become unobtainable, those which 

 stand next in the order of beauty and rarity are 

 persecuted in their turn; and in a country as 

 densely populated as ours, where birds cannot 

 hide themselves from human eyes, such persecution 

 must eventually cause their extinction. Mean- 

 while the bird population does not decrease. 

 Every place in nature, like every property in 



i6i 



