INTRODUCTION. xv 



individualSj and thus leaving only the most healthy birds 

 for the stock of game ; to the other by keeping down 

 the multitude of rats, mice, and other vermin which do the 

 farm more injury than all the birds of prey have ever done, 

 and which have most destructively increased throughout the 

 county in general, a state of things which can never be 

 remedied till every country gentleman gives strict orders to 

 his keepers to carefully preserve all birds of prey, and sees 

 that his instructions are carried out. At the present time 

 these birds have either entirely ceased to breed in the 

 county, or have become so diminished in numbers, that 

 with the exception of the really mischievous Sparrow-hawk 

 and the harmless Kestrel, a bird of prey is rarely to be met 

 with. To these causes may be added the wholesale destruc- 

 tion of small birds by the bird-catchers, the increased 

 population, and the constant improvement in firearms of all 

 kinds. 



On the other hand, however, we have derived a certain 

 degree of benefit by the late Acts of Parliament for the 

 preservation of many species during the breeding-season, 

 and from the increasing attention given to Natural History 

 in general. 



Notwithstanding all the drawbacks I have mentioned, 

 the county still presents an interesting field for future 

 investigation, and in the woodland districts there are still 

 abundance of songsters and other of the migratory birds, 

 though on the clay-land I have observed that there are 

 fewer individuals, though perhaps not fewer species, than on 

 the sandy districts, but a very few miles ofE ; a circumstance 

 which I think may perhaps be attributed to the comparative 

 lightness of the soil there affording greater facilities for 

 dusting, which all birds at times require, and which the 

 weaker species find some diflBculty in obtaining on the clay, 

 as when the weather has been wet it is a long time before 



