Lost British Birds. 25 



provincial phrase by which the fen-men designate one of 

 these birds in the breeding plumage, is exactly the creature 

 which all bird preservers eagerly snatch up, being purchased 

 not only by the naturalist but by anyone desiring a " pretty 

 object in a glass case." 



In this, its favourite county, it lingered on, as a breeder, 

 long after Lubbock's time. Stevenson, in the second 



volume of his Birds of Norfolk (1870) laments the loss 

 within recent times of the avocet, black tern, and black- 

 tailed godwit, and adds : " The Kuff and the Keeve, repre- 

 sented by only a few pairs and in but one locality, must 

 shortly be added to the list if the timely protection of the 

 law be not invoked to protect it." He also says : " So strong, 

 I believe, is the attachment of certain birds to the place of 

 their birth, and so unerring the instinct which directs them, 

 though absent in winter, to return year after year to the 



