APPENDIX. 7*7 



known to breed here: the caufe that principally 

 urges them to leave this country, feems to be not 

 merely the want of food, but the defire of a fecure 

 retreat. Our country is too populous for birds fo 

 fhy and timid as the bulk of thefe are : when great 

 part of our ifland was a mere wade, a trad of 

 woods and fen ; doubtlefs many fpecies of birds 

 (which at this time migrate) remained in fecurity 

 throughout the year. Egrets, a fpecies of Heron, 

 now fcarce known in this ifland, were in former 

 times in prodigious plenty ; and the Crane, that 

 has totally forfaken this country, bred familiarly 

 in our marfhes : their place of incubation, as well 

 as of all other cloven footed water fowl (the Heron 

 excepted) being on the ground, and expofed to 

 every one : as rural ceconomy increafed in this 

 country, thefe animals were more and more ,dif- 

 turbed \ at length, by a feries of alarms, they were 

 neceflitated to feek, during the fummer, fome lonely 

 fafe habitation. 



On the contrary, thofe that build or lay in the 

 almoft inacceffible rocks that impend over the 

 Britifh feas, breed there {till in vaft numbers, hav- 

 ing little to fear from the approach of mankind • 

 the only diflurbance they meet with in general, be- 

 ing from the defperate attempts of fome few to get 

 their eggs, 



CLOVEN 



