Variety of Scenery in Wiltshire. 3 



But if there are living creatures to be found in every kind of 

 country, in remote, inhospitable, and almost inaccessible rocks 

 and snows, as well as in more genial and milder regions ; and 

 if each creature, of whatever class and however minute, is 

 still most wonderfully formed and fitted for the particular 

 locality assigned to it, we may assert again, without fear of con- 

 tradiction, that the district which comprises the greatest variety 

 of scenery may be expected to produce the greatest variety of 

 species. 



From the great variety, then, of scenery which Wiltshire 

 possesses, we should expect to find a great variety of species of 

 birds ; and such, I boldly assert, is the result of our inquiries. 



Of the five orders into which birds are commonly divided, 

 three compose that large class called the ' Land Birds,' and two 

 the ' Water Birds.' And if we examine the work which at the 

 present day is generally accepted by the bulk of ornithologists as 

 their manual and book of reference I mean Yarrell's ' British 

 Birds ' we shall find that in the last edition, completed in 1885, 

 of the Land Birds therein enumerated there are just 199 species. 

 But this list contains the names, not only of every bird which 

 inhabits this country throughout the year; or which, being 

 migratory, is a periodical sojourner here during the summer or 

 winter, or an occasional visitant, passing us on its way to northern 

 or southern latitudes, but also of every bird which has ever been 

 seen in this country. If a straggler from Asia or Africa, happen- 

 ing to fall in with a storm of wind, should be hurried out of its 

 course and carried to our shores, that one single occurrence 

 suffices at the present day to place its name on our British list. 

 I am not now about to enter into the question of the advantage 

 or disadvantage to science of such a method. I only state that 

 this is the method adopted by our British ornithologists, and by 

 this means the addition of some tempest- driven, or lost straggler, 

 is being continually made to our ever-increasing list. And yet, 

 notwithstanding this modern method of swelling the list of 

 British birds, and though with such additions to it from year 

 to year, the last edition of our standard ornithological work 



12 



