252 BIRDS AND MAN 



prosecute nor openly denounce them because of 

 their important social position in the county. 



There was nothing new to me in all this : it 

 was an old familiar story ; I have given it fully, 

 simply because it is an accurate statement of 

 what is being done all over the country. There 

 is not a county in the kingdom where you may 

 not hear of important members of the com- 

 munity who are collectors of birds and their 

 eggs, and law-breakers, both directly and in- 

 directly, every day of their lives. They all 

 take, and pay for, every rare visitant that comes 

 in their way, and also require an unlimited supply 

 of the rarer resident species for the purpose of 

 exchange with other private collectors in distant 

 counties. In this way our finest species are 

 gradually being extirpated. Within the last few 

 years we have seen the disappearance (as breed- 

 ing species) of the ruff" and reeve, marsh har- 

 rier, and honey buzzard ; and the species now on 

 the verge of extinction, which wiU soon follow 

 these and others that have gone before, if indeed 

 some of them have not already gone, are the 

 sea-eagle, osprey, kite, hen harrier, Montagu's 

 harrier, stone curlew, Kentish plover, dotterel. 



