CHAPTER IX. 



RASORES (Ground-link). 



THERE is no class of birds so well known, or so highly appre- 

 ciated generally, as the third Order of systematic naturalists, the 

 Rasores, or Ground- birds ; ' Scrapers/ or ' Scratchers,' as the 

 scientific title may be more correctly translated. It is by far the 

 smallest of the five orders, for the British list contains only four 

 families the Pigeons, the Pheasants, the Grouse and the Bustards; 

 and one of these families is represented by one species only in this 

 county, while the whole Order as known in these isles embraces 

 only seventeen species; fourteen of which have appeared in 

 Wiltshire, either as permanent residents, as regular periodical 

 migrants, or as occasional stragglers. So far, then, our county can 

 boast an unusually large catalogue of this highly prized order ; 

 but it will be seen in the sequel that a great proportion of this 

 number (I may indeed say half the species) can only be con- 

 sidered in the light of accidental visitors, which from one cause 

 or another have wandered out of their way to our inhospitable 

 borders, and have generally paid the penalty of their too vagrant 

 habits by forfeiting their lives, and yielding their skins as trophies 

 to some exultant ornithologist. 



I have said that of all classes of the feathered race, the Ground- 

 birds are most generally known and valued ; and when we reflect 

 that they embrace the whole family of Pigeons, and the principal 

 part of the game birds so carefully reared and so highly prized by 

 the sportsman the Pheasants, the Grouse and the Partridges it 

 will be at once apparent that, as well for the excellent eating which 



