INTRODUCTION. 73 



hunted and destroyed on account of the injuries 

 real or reputed which they commit on the works 

 of the husbandman ; or they are chased for the 

 profits yielded by the sale of their skins, and 

 for the food which they may afford to a people 

 perhaps newly settled, and to whom the culti- 

 vated productions have not yet been reared in 

 plenty. We have striking instances of this in 

 North America, New Holland, and South Africa. 

 In these lands, wherever colonies have been 

 formed, the larger quadrupeds and birds have 

 been either extirpated from their formerly wild 

 and solitary haunts, or have fled before the settler 

 to districts where they could still enjoy seclusion. 

 We can no longer see the ostrich or emu without 

 performing extensive journeys to the interiors ; 

 and the wild turkey, the bird of America, by our 

 latest accounts, is now a rare species except in the 

 far west." Similar causes have operated in our 

 own country, and though now extensively, the 

 time of their operation has been gradual and long. 

 So far as number of species is to be regarded, our 

 list will perhaps exceed what it previously did, for 

 so much attention has been given to ornithology of 

 late years, that several rare birds have been added 

 to our Fauna, and some, whose characters had 

 not been very well marked, have been separated 

 from those they resembled ; but nevertheless our 

 loss has been great. All the larger Raptorial birds 



