142 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



the countries of North Asia, a large portion of 

 North America and Antarctic America, or South 

 Chili and Patagonia, It would not be going too far 

 to say that for every English species, inhabiting the 

 garden, wood, field, stream, or waste, at least half 

 a dozen resident species, with similar habits, might 

 be obtained from the countries mentioned which 

 would be superior to our own in melody (the night- 

 ingale and lark excepted), bright plumage, grace of 

 form, or some other attractive quahty. 



The question then arises : What reason is there 

 for believing that these exotics, imported necessarily 

 in small numbers, would succeed in winning a 

 footing in our country, and become a permanent 

 addition to its avifauna i For it has been admitted 

 that our species are not few, in spite of the losses 

 that have been suffered, and that the bird population 

 does not diminish, however much its character may 

 have altered and deteriorated from the aesthetic 

 point of view, and probably also from the utilitarian. 

 There are no vacant places. Thus, the streams are 

 fished by herons, grebes, and kingfishers, while the 

 rushy margins are worked by coots and gallinules, 

 and, above the surface, reed and sedge warblers, 

 with other kinds, inhabit the reed-beds. The 

 decaying forest tree is the province of the wood- 

 pecker, of which there are three kinds ; and the 

 trunks and branches of all trees, healthy or decaying, 



