23 
appearing, such as the hobby, marsh harrier, Norfolk plover, ruff, 
sheldrake, great crested grebe, the common and lesser terns, lap- 
sing, redshank, and ring dotterell. 
I have myself talked with men who have taken the eggs of the 
avocet and hlack-tailed god wit, and who have seen the bustard at 
large in its last stronghold. The bittern was so common in Feltwell 
Fen that a keeper there has shot five in one day, and his fiither 
used to have one roasted for dinner every Sunday. I have found 
the eggs of IMontagu’s harrier, and know those who remember 
the time when the hen haivier and short-eared owl bred regularly 
in lioydon Fen, and who have taken the eggs of the water-rail 
in what was once AFhittlesca iNlere. 
I will not stop to enter upon the causes which have produced 
this change, nor upon the present condition of some species which 
are rapidly disappearing, as I should like t«i avail myself of 
another opportunity of doing the subject more justice than I 
could now, but will merely point out what I shall call the moral 
of this address — let us all strive to follow the example of the good 
Dr. Brown, and of the no less worthy Mr. Lubbock, in preserving 
for our successors a faithful account of what we see and know in 
our own time, and in collecting all the information possible from 
every source res|iecting those species which are passing away from 
us, or have been lost within the memory of man. I cannot do 
better than conclude with quoting the words of Professor Ne^vton 
when speaking of the great bustard : — * “ We, the naturalists of 
the present day, regretting that we know nothing of the extinction 
of the crane as a British bird two centuries ago — or of the 
capercally, in Scotland, one hundred years since, are, I think, 
bound to search out all the legends of the bustard before it is too 
late, in order to prevent our successor's from reproaching us as v'e 
do those who lived at the times I speak of — and we shall be the 
more blameable, for we ought to have profited by their bad 
example. I need not say that this remark does not apply solely to 
the bustard’s case — but all birtis whose existence in this country 
has already become, or is becoming, a matter of history — and 
there are, I am sorry to say, many of them — deserve the same 
attention, and I am sure that however humble our efforts may bo 
to effect this, they will not be thought despicable.” 
* In a letter to the writer. 
