^38 BIRDS AND MAN 



species, a feeble flyer that must brave the 

 winters at home; that down to within thirty 

 years ago it was fairly common, though local, 

 in the south of England, and ranged as far north 

 as the borders of Yorkshire, and that in this 

 period it has fallen to its present state, when 

 but a few pairs and small colonies, wide apart, 

 exist in isolated patches of furze in four or five, 

 possibly six, counties. 



There can be no doubt that the dechne of 

 this species, which, on account of its furze- 

 loving habits, must always be restricted to 

 limited areas, is directly attributable to the greed 

 of private collectors, who are aU bound to have 

 specimens — as many as they can get — ^both of 

 the bird and its nest and eggs. Its strictly local 

 distribution made its destruction a comparatively 

 easy task. In 1873 Gould wrote in his large 

 work on British Birds : " All the commons south 

 of London, from Blackheath and Wimbledon to 

 the coast, were formerly tenanted by this little 

 bird ; but the increase in the number of collectors 

 has, I fear, greatly thinned them in aU the 

 districts near the metropolis ; it is still, however, 

 very abundant in many parts of Surrey and 



