194 ON THE TOTAL AND PARTIAL 



learning, after instituting strict inquiries in the above counties, that 

 the species was entirely unknown there, justly concluded that they had 

 forsaken our island. 



The stork (Ardea ciconia), many years back, was occasionally seen ; 

 but the country having become more populous, they have not been ob- 

 served for years. I have consulted several works, with the view of 

 learning when they were last observed, but can find no instances with 

 dates prefixed. 



It is perhaps owing to the disappearance of retired places suited to 

 the establishment of heronries, that herons in this country have become 

 so rare. The heronries recorded to be in existence in England at the 

 present day do not amount to more than eleven. The places at which 

 those heronries occur are as follows — viz. Wanstead Park, Essex, 

 (vide Field Naturalist, vol. i. p. 359) ; Colonel Wilson's estate, Did- 

 lington, in Norfolk, (Zool. Gardens Illustrated, vol. ii. p. .142) ; 

 Windsor Great Park, on the borders of Bagshot Heath ; Penshurt 

 Place, Kent ; Cobham Hall, Kent ; Mr. Bethel's seat, Hutton, near 

 Beverley i n Yorkshire ; Lord Carnarvon's seat, Pixton ; Gobay Park, 

 on the road to Penrith, near a rocky pass called Yew Crag, on the north 

 side of the romantic lake of Ulswater ; Cressi Hall, six miles from 

 Spalding, in Lincolnshire ; Downington-in-Holland, in Lincolnshire ; 

 Brockley Woods, near Bristol ; and Brownsea Island, near Poole, in 

 Dorsetshire. 



The wood-grouse, or cock of the wood ( Tetrao urogallus), once inha- 

 bited Ireland and Scotland, but has been extinct in the former coun- 

 try for nearly seventy years, and in the latter for fifty years. Wood- 

 grouse now and then find a place at our tables ; but such individuals, 

 according to Bullock, are imported from Sweden. ee It is to be re- 

 gretted," says Sir William Jardine, " that some of our extensive and 

 wealthy northern proprietors do not attempt the introduction of the 

 wood-grouse ; extensive pine or birch forests, with quiet, would be all 

 the requisites ; and the birds themselves, or their young, could very 

 easily be obtained, and at a trifling expense*." 



It is notorious that the felling of trees for timber has operated to a 

 great extent towards the diminution of rookeries. " In many counties 

 very few rookeries remain, where once they were considered as a neces- 

 sary appendage, and regularly pointed out the abbey, the hall, the 

 court-house, and the grangef." 



* White's Selborne, p. 21 — note. t Knowledge for the People, Part iv. p. 104. 



