4 Introduction. 



contains but 199 Land Birds, I have been enabled to claim no 

 less than 133 species of them as belonging to our county. 



Of the two other orders comprising the other class, or ' Water 

 Birds,' it cannot be expected, as I before said, that this, as an 

 inland county, should possess a very large supply. Still, even of 

 these there are some families amongst the Waders as the Plovers, 

 Herons, Snipes, and Rails which affect our open downs or 

 marshy valleys to a great degree ; and there are others which are 

 more essentially Sea-Birds as the Ducks, Grebes, Terns, and 

 Gulls which are very frequent visitors, more especially in the 

 south of the county, the portion nearest to the sea-coast 

 Besides this, we have an occasional visit from many other varie- 

 ties of Water Birds continually occurring. So that of the 176 

 species of Water Birds enumerated in the new edition of Yarrell, 

 I may claim 102 for our Wiltshire list ; so that again the diligent 

 ornithologist, though he confine his observations to his own 

 county, will not unfrequently meet with specimens of birds 

 whose more peculiar domain is the sea and the shore. And this 

 brings up the total list of Wiltshire birds to 235.* 



Another and a strong proof of the favourable retreat afforded 

 by this district of England to certain species of birds, and one 

 which by no means should be omitted in speaking of its Ornitho- 

 logy, is that for a great number of years our wide downs, and, 

 above all, Salisbury Plain, were the resort of that noble bird the 

 Great Bustard ; and though of late years it has most unhappily 

 become extinct in Great Britain, in consequence of the draining, 

 enclosing, and cultivating of our waste lands, yet the downs of 

 Wilts deserve honourable mention as one of its last strongholds. 

 With all these facts before us, I repeat that Wiltshire does offer a 



* On comparing this with the published catalogues of birds of other 

 counties, I find that in 



Cornwall (with coast on two sides) Mr. Rodd enumerates 290 species. 



Number district (with open coast) Mr. Cordeaux 276 



Lancashire (with sea-board) Mr. Mitchell ,, 256 



Somersetshire (with some coast) Mr. Cecil Smith 216 



Middlesex (no coast) Mr. Harting 225 



Sussex (with much sea-coast) Mr. Knox 242 



