INTRODUCTION. 
73 
hunted and destroyed on account of the injuries 
real or reputed which they commit on the works 
of the husbandman ; or they are chased for the 
profits yielded by the sale of their skins, and 
for the food which they may afford to a people 
perhaps newly settled, and to whom the culti- 
vated productions have not yet been reared in 
plenty. We have striking instances of this in 
North America, New Holland, and South Africa. 
In these lauds, wherever colonies have been 
formed, the larger quadrupeds and birds have 
been either extirpated from their formerly wild 
and solitary haunts, or have fled before the settler 
to districts where they could still enjoy seclusion. 
We can no longer see the ostrich or emu without 
performing extensive journeys to the interiors ; 
and the wild turkey, the bird of America, by our 
latest accounts, is now a rare species except in the 
“ far west.” Similar causes have operated in our 
own country, and though now extensively, the 
time of their operation has been gradual and long. 
So far as number of species is to be regarded, our 
list will perhaps exceed what it previously did, for 
so much attention has been given to ornithology of 
late years, that several rare birds have been added 
to our Fauna, and some, whose characters had 
not been very well marked, have been separated 
from those they resembled ; but nevertheless our 
loss has been great. All the larger Raptorial birds 
