HIS NATIVE HEATH. 



AMONG the birds which we reckon on our list as 

 British, there are not a few which, once native 

 here, have with changed conditions gradually dimi- 

 nished in numbers, until being no longer regular 

 residents, they appear now only as stragglers from 

 more settled haunts. 



The engineer's level has ever been more fatal to 

 aboriginal races than the long-bow or the rifle. The 

 draining of the fens has been more disastrous to our 

 native birds than the invention of gunpowder. 



No longer in the dwindling reed forests is there 

 found a shelter for the tall figure of the crane. The 

 ploughshare and the spade have long since driven the 

 ruff from his haunts among the marshes. 



Many birds of prey, again, from long and ruthless 

 persecution, are almost extinct. It is rare to see even 

 a peregrine or a harrier ; while the kite and the osprey 

 linger only in jealously guarded sanctuaries. 



In the case of the chough, however, it seems difficult 

 to assign any sufficient reason for its increasing rarity. 



