MIGRATION OF BRITISH BIRDS. 513 



WATER FOWL. 



Of the vaft variety of water fowl that frequent 

 Great- Britain, it is amazing to reflect how few are 

 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 iiland was a meer wafte, a tract 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 orodi- 

 gious plenty \ and the Crane, that has totally forfaken 

 this country, bred familiarly in our marines : 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 cecono- 

 my increafed in this country, thefe animals were more 

 and more difturbed •, at length, by a feries of alarms, 

 they were necefiltated 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 Britiflj 

 feas, breed there ftill in vaft numbers, having little 

 to fear from the approach of mankind : the only dif- 

 turbance they meet with in general, being from the 

 defperate attempts of fome few to get their eggs. 



K k 4 CLOVEN 



