DISAPPEARANCE 81 



awake for that nor even from the British Islands 

 as a whole, but he is passing away from the whole 

 of the interior districts of England, where, a genera- 

 tion or two ago, his solemn croak could so often be 

 heard. 



I will premise two things which apply not to this 

 chapter only, but to the whole volume : first, I 

 pretend to no strictly scientific knowledge of the 

 subject. Science, nay, one single subdivision of one 

 single branch of science nowadays, demands and 

 deserves, if the study is to be fruitful of positive 

 results, the devotion of a lifetime. But the observa- 

 tions and the studies even if they should be some- 

 what " random and desultory " of any one who has 

 loved birds with a passionate love all his life, may 

 have some little value of their own. They may rouse 

 a general interest in the subject which purely scien- 

 tific details may fail to do. They may add to the 

 enjoyment of country life, and they may tend, as I 

 have good reason to hope these essays in their 

 earlier and more fugitive form, have already begun 

 to do, towards the preservation of birds which, even 

 if they are guilty of an occasional depredation on 

 game or on the flock, surely do much more than 

 atone for it, by the oddities of their habits, by the 

 beauty of their movements, and by their sonorous 



F 



