Birds. 9027 
autumnal migrant, has ceased almost entirely to nest in our fens, so 
many of its former haunts no longer existing in their normal state. 
The longeared owl, on the contrary, at one time scarce, has, through 
the great increase in our fir plantations, become a pretty numerous 
resident amongst us, in spite of its nests being systematically plundered. 
But if the Raptores have suffered at the hands of the gamekeeper (and 
included alike in his list of “ feathered vermin” are the raven, the mag- 
pie and the carrion crow), the smaller insessorial birds, more especially 
the warblers that visit us in summer, are benefited greatly through 
the care of the game. The dense woods afford both food and shelter, 
and their own little nests are safe from prying eyes, since no intruding 
footstep is allowed to scare the sitting pheasants. This is perhaps 
the only class which can really be said to have benefited by recent 
changes, for if the marked decrease in our birds of prey has caused a 
corresponding increase amongst the finches, buntings and larks, the 
barbarous and unreasoning system of slaughter so recently adopted, by 
means of poisoned wheat, bid fair to effect at one time the same 
lamentable state of things that now exists in France. The warning, 
however, received from that country has roused the friends of the 
“little bird” amongst us, and the various appeals in its favour that 
have appeared in our metropolitan and provincial journals have been 
happily supplemented by legislative enactments tending to the pre- 
servation of the feathered tribes. ‘ Man cannot do without the bird” 
as an insect-eater, and although, when undiminished in the natural 
way, their numbers become a serious tax upon the farmer’s corn, there 
are and always have been legitimate and effectual means for thinning 
their ranks without involving in one general massacre the useful and 
the mischievous—the rook and the sparrow, and often, though quite 
unintentionally, the partridge as well. 
Whitetailed Eagle. Autumn and winter migrant.* 
Osprey. Spring and autumn migrant. 
Greenland Falcon. Accidental.t 
Peregrine Falcon. Spring and autumn migrant. 
-Hobby. Summer migrant, breeding here occasionally. 
Redfooted Falcon. Accidental. 
Merlin. Spring and autumn migrant. 
* Amongst autumn and winter migrants are included most of the gulls, but 
although some birds of this tribe are seen on the coast nearly all the year round, they 
do not (with the exception of the blackheaded gull) breed here, and cannot therefore 
be classed as residents. 
+ Accidental; very rare, or such as have occurred but a few times irregularly. 
