Ixx 



INTRODUCTION. 



in the previous century by a member of the Townshend 

 family, was becoming universally cultivated, and when 

 drilled in ridges instead of sown "broadcast," taught 

 even the Grey-Partridge the use of its legs, and enabled 

 the recently imported " Red-legs " to baffle their 

 pursuers, both human and canine. The (e four-course " 

 system of cropping, also, with closely mown stubbles 

 and thinned hedgerows, changed materially the opera- 

 tions of the sportsman, and as has been already remarked, 

 with reference to the breeding of the Bustard, the very 

 implements invented and the new methods adopted 

 for the better cultivation of the soil, had, to a certain 

 extent, a prejudicial effect upon the ground-breeding 

 birds, both small and great. As Mr. Lubbock, however, 

 so truly observes "there is a compensating principle 

 continually at work in nature," and though drainage 

 and cultivation have been the main cause of the ban- 

 ishment of so many former residents, we have expe- 

 rienced, in others, a corresponding increase. As the 

 Snipe and the Redshank recede before the inroads of 

 the plough, the Partridge every where extends its area, 

 and the Black-headed Bunting and the Bearded Titmouse 

 are replaced by other Buntings and Finches, with more 

 granivorous appetites. Our summer warblers, and indeed 

 almost all arboreal species, have increased in proportion 

 to the accommodation afforded them, and game pre- 

 serving, however fatal to the Raptores as a body, and their 

 Corvine cousins the Raven, the Magpie, and the Carrion 

 Crow, has on the other hand acted as a protection to many 

 other birds, besides Partridges and Pheasants. Wood- 

 Pigeons, Blackbirds, and Thrushes, freed from their 

 natural enemies, have become more and more plentiful ; 

 and those which wisely seek the shelter of the woods 

 during the breeding season, now rear their young in 

 blissful security, no birds' nesting boys having a chance 

 of robbing them in the well watched coverts. The 



