president’s address. 
541 
The reason of this is, of course, manifest. It is due to the 
increased attention paid to the preservation of game ; and looking 
to the high price paid throughout the whole country for the hire 
of shooting, and the way in which nearly everywhere the 
destruction of “ vermin ” is left wholly to the gamekeepei’S 
employed, the result is not surprising, and is perhaps inevitable. 
T)Ut I would point out to you that the same result will in due time 
follow with regard to other groups of birds. Hie persecution has 
been most intense in the case of the Birds of Prey, and accord- 
ingly its effect is the most readily apparent; but the effect of 
what is practically, though far less perceptibly, persecution, is just 
as sure, and only reipiires a longer period to be rendered visible. 
'I’his kind of indirect persecution is caused in many ways, and 
chief among them is that caused by agricultural improvement. 
A notable instance was that of the Bustard, many years ago, on 
which it is quite needless for mo on the present occasion to dwell ; 
and scarcely less striking are the changes brought about by the 
drainage of fens and marshes. The immense popularity of the 
district of the Broads as a place of recreation must, I fear, be 
regarded by all naturalists as threatening the home of several 
species, all the more to be regretted as some of them have no other 
in this island. Tlie greater attention paid to plantations and 
timber generally may not on the whole have so unfavourable a 
result ; for, though the removal of decayed or unhealthy trees 
must injuriously affect certain species by depriving them of the 
portion of their food which is supplied by wood-infesting insects, 
some compensation is given in the way of shelter to other species ; 
and it must also be admitted, while lamenting the effects of game- 
preservation in extirpating our Birds of Prey, that it undoubtedly 
affords increased security and protection to many of our smaller 
woodland birds, not, it is true, that they generally stood in need 
of those benefits. 
Tliese same causes which have led to the extirpation of 
many species of birds in the British Isles have also operated 
in the total extinction of others in other islands, chiefly 
those called Oceanic ; and have been aggravated by the savage 
