Mr Edmondston on the Kittiwake^ 9^ 
mme extinct in some districts, where but a few years since they 
were numerous ; nor is it observed that, when they decrease in 
one situation^ they proportionally multiply in another. And. 
should we not naturally suppose, that when molested in one 
quarter of a country, they should rather remove to another part 
of it, where they find their own species and congenerous birds 
undisturbed, than, from bdng persecuted in any particular 
part of a country, infer, if I may so express it, that they alone 
of their species, like the dove of the deluge,"” have there no 
resting place, and emigrate to distant and unknown regions ? 
Why may not instinct attach them to a distinct situation, as well 
as to a particular kind of elevation, or soil, or climate, or form 
of nest It may be as difficult to change the impulse that deter- 
mines Certain families of birds to definite situations, as that v/hich 
attaches their species to certain countries, or to a particular form 
of nest, — to make the arctic gull breed on the shelves of rocks, 
or the auks on the heaths. I do not assert that no addition is 
ever made to certain families of birds, but that these families, as 
long as any of them remain, always possess the haunts of their 
predecessors. And this seems a beneficent provision of Nature 
to preserve a due balance in the diffusion of each species, and 
to prevent the frequent quarrels and fatal contests among the 
feathered tribes, which the want of it would inevitably occasion. 
It is, besides, inconsistent, first to assume that birds are 
mainly intended for the use of man, and then, Tantalus-like, to 
remove them from his reach the moment he wishes to avail 
himself of their advantage ; but this would be the case, if it be 
not generally incorrect^ that birds remove from those situations 
where they are molested ; and if it be not incorrect, we ought, 
in exploring those retreats to which they are presumed to re- 
move, to find a proportional increase in number. 
It would, therefore, appear to be erroneous to suppose that 
birds withdraw to more retired haunts^ as their enemies or civi- 
lisation increase ; but more natural to conclude that they have 
been extirpated in certain situations which they once inhabited, 
and where they are now no longer to be found ; and hence we 
may anticipate the extinction not only of certain tribes of the 
same species, but perhaps of certain species themselves, from? 
the progressive increase of similar causes of extermination. 
VOL. VII. NO. 13. JULY 1822, G- 
