278 
IMany other similar facts might he brought forward respecting 
other birds. Bearded Tits are nothing like as plentiful as they 
used to be, and Harriers are very rare. Our celebrated broads 
are becoming a collecting-ground for London dealers, who Avould 
lluck down, if they dared, in shoals, like excursionists to Epping 
Forest, and invade the Avaste of Avaters Avhich is the asylum of our 
native Warblers and SAvalloAv-tailed Butterflies, Avherc the Osmunda 
Fern rears its head in tufts of lordly size, and the Osprey occasion- 
ally soars overhead, and the Short-eared Owl breeds Avhen unmolested. 
These sacred solitudes and their rare inhabitants it is our duH, 
as good Naturalists, to protect. Let us raise our voice in behalf 
of the last remnant of the Buffs and BeeA^es, before it is too late ; 
and lot us plead that the nests of the Harriers and Short-eared 
Owls may be spared, and they Avill reward those on Avhose domains 
they still arc for maiiy a long day to come. It is a sad reflection, 
that the greed for specimens, the preservation of game, and the 
advances of cultivation, should rob our sons of much Avhich 
is interesting in our native Avi-fauna. The evil might be 
greatly checked if the taste for Natural History Avas more general, 
and the desire for the excessive multi^flication of the domestic 
Pheasant did not cause so many of our proprietors to license their 
gamekeepers to trap and shoot everything indiscriminately 
though this is not the only factor in the extermination A\diich is 
going on. 
