224 BIRDS AND MAN 



but a few pairs and small colonies, wide apart, 

 exist in isolated patches of furze in four or five, 

 possibly six, counties. 



There can be no doubt that the decline of this 

 species, which, on account of its furze-loving habits, 

 must always be restricted to limited areas, is 

 directly attributable to the greed of private col- 

 lectors, who are all bound to have specimens as 

 many as they can get both of the bird and its 

 nest and eggs. Its strictly local distribution made 

 its destruction a comparatively easy task. In 1873 

 Gould wrote in his large work on British Birds : 

 " All the commons south of London, from Black- 

 heath and Wimbledon to the coast, were formerly 

 tenanted by this little bird ; but the increase in 

 the number of collectors has, I fear, greatly thinned 

 them in all the districts near the metropolis ; it is 

 still, however, very abundant in many parts of 

 Surrey and Hampshire." It did not long continue 

 " very abundant." Gould was shown the bird, and 

 supplied with specimens, by a man named Smithers, 

 a bird-stuffer of Churt, who was at that time col- 

 lecting Dartford warblers and their eggs for the 

 trade and many private persons, on the open heath 

 and gorse-grown country that lies between Farn- 

 ham and Haslemere. Gould in the work quoted, 



