Distribution of British Animals . 291 
gress of improvements, and extending their ravages with the in- 
crease of their wants, we shall arrive at the conclusion that man 
must have altered greatly the geographical range of many species, 
and may even have succeeded in effecting the total destruction of 
a few* But we are not left to conjecture on this interesting subject. 
Though the preceding observations have been considered neces- 
sary to remove prejudice, and prepare the mind for examining 
the proofs which are about to be offered, they are only to be 
viewed as establishing the probabilities of the question. Nume- 
rous facts seem to offer themselves in illustration of the subject. 
Those connected with birds shall be first attended to. 
The improvements which have taken place in agriculture, 
within the recollection of the oldest inhabitants of the country, 
and the extended use of fire-arms, have produced such remark- 
able changes on the haunts, the shelter, and the means of sub- 
sistence of many birds, as to banish from extensive districts se- 
veral species which were formerly abundant. Eagles, Ravens, 
and Bustards, have entirely disappeared from the more culti- 
vated districts. The haunts of the Mallard, the Snipe, the 
Redshank, and the Bittern, have been drained, equally with 
the summer dwellings of the Lapwing and the Curlieu. But 
there yet remain districts to which these species can resort, and 
continue to maintain their claim to be regarded as British sub- 
jects, though the limits of their residence have been greatly re- 
duced. Others, however, have shared a different fate. 
The Capercailzie or Wood Grouse, formerly a native of 
the pine forests of Ireland and Scotland, has been destroyed 
within the last fifty years. It still, however, maintains its sta- 
tion in the more extensive woods of Northern Europe and Asia. 
Those which survive in the Norwegian forests, are likely soon 
to share the same fate as the ancient inhabitants of our own 
woods, as numbers now find their way, during the winter sea- 
son, to the shops of the London poulterers *. Attempts, it is un- 
derstood, have been recently made to restock our pine forests in 
the north with this noble bird from their continental haunts. 
* Some hundreds of these birds are annually sold in the market of Christiania 
in Norway. — Edit. 
T 2 
