WILD LIFE 85 



of the food and shelter they so much dehght in, 

 have gradually disappeared, and in this locality are 

 now very rarely to be met with. This is to be de- 

 plored, for an old blackcock, with his forked tail 

 and glossy sable plumage, is one of the finest of the 

 British birds." 



Of the species that have been extirpated on the 

 doAvns, just now one is inclined to most keenly regret 

 the stone curlew, not only because it is a fine big 

 bird, singularly interesting in its habits, and possessing 

 a powerful wild cry to gladden the souls of those 

 who hear it, but also because its loss is so recent. 

 In the early part of the century it was quite common 

 on the downs, and bred on all the barren stony spots 

 on the highest hills, as well as on the extensive 

 shingly flats on the Pevensey coast. In spite of in- 

 cessant persecution it clung to its ancient southern 

 haunt, and succeeded each year in rearing a few young 

 down to about twenty-five to thirty years ago. The 

 shepherds knew it well, and the old and middle-aged 

 men among them have many stories of their o^vn 

 experiences in hunting for its two stone-coloured eggs 

 in the flinty places. During the last quarter of a 

 century it has trembled on the verge of extinction, 

 and I think I can say with truth that it is now, like 

 the great bustard, nothing but a memory. One pair 

 bred not far from Chanctonbury Ring about four or 

 five years ago. In the spring of 1897 another pair 

 bred on a down south of the village of Jevington, 



