Rare British 
Birds. 
(74) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Rare British Birds. 
A Lectvire Delivered at Winchester by the 
Rev. Canon Vavigihan. 
The Rev. Canon Vaughan, Rector of 
Droxford, recently gave an interesting 
lecture at Wolvesey Church House on 
the subject of British Birds. The chair 
was taken by the Rev. and Hon. Canon 
Brodrick, and there was a large 
audience. The lecture was held under 
the auspices of the Royal Society for 
the Protection of Birds. 
After the Chairman’s introductory 
remarks, Canon Vaughan alluded to 
the rarity, and in some cases the abso¬ 
lute extinction of some species of birds 
that were once to be found in Hamp¬ 
shire, among them being the Buzzard, 
the Kite, the Bitterne, the Hawfinch, 
etc. There had been three direct in¬ 
fluences at work which had contributed 
to that condition of things, among them 
being the enclosing of commons, the 
draining of fens, and the growth and 
development of towns and railways. 
Added to these was the preservation of 
game. 
It was only in modern times that 
game was preserved in England and 
Scotland to the extent it was to-day 
With the commencement of the preserva 
tion of game in Scotland in 1840 began 
a war of extermination against Eagles 
and larger Hawks, which had almost 
resulted in their extermination. By the 
side of game preserving they must place 
egg-collecting, which was more modem 
still. This craze was only about forty 
years old, but it had tended as much as 
anything else to lessen the various 
species of birds throughout England. 
When it was appreciated that a Kite’s 
egg would fetch as much as ,£5 in 
England they would understand how 
much they were in demand. The 
remarks that applied to the Kite applied 
with equal force to the other larger 
species such as the Bustard, Blackgame, 
and Bitterne. Up to the time of 
Henry VIII. the Bustard was compara¬ 
tively common, and Gilbert White wrote 
of them as not being uncommon on the 
Downs near Stonehenge. In Montague’s 
Dictionary of British Birds they would 
read that there were Bustard on Salis¬ 
bury Plain early in the last century. In 
regard to Blackgame, a few did now 
manage to maintain an existence in the 
New Forest, and although they had 
been reintroduced into the Forest of 
Woolmer they had again become extinct. 
At one time the Bitterne was in re¬ 
quest for table purposes. Bitterne, 
near Southampton, and Bisterne, near 
RingwoOd, undoubtedly indicated the 
existence of these birds, and it was in¬ 
teresting to remember that beneath the 
foundation of Christchurch Priory 
among a collection of bones found 
were many of those of the Bitterne. Few 
persons had ever, or would ever, be so 
fortunate as to see a live Bitterne. 
Since the draining of Fens, it had gradu¬ 
ally become extinct, although it was. 
not many years ago that one built its 
nest in Avington Park. If they went 
back a hundred years, to the writings of 
Gilbert White and those in the journals 
of the second Earl of Malmesbury they 
would find vivid pictures of the number 
of birds of prey existing in Hampshire 
in those days. It was quite clear that; 
the larger Hawks and Falcons were not. 
uncommon in that .day. Although they 
had now lost them, and birds that were 
once common were now almost extinct,, 
they had compensations, and in refer¬ 
ence to the smaller birds the increase 
had been great. That was due to two 
reasons. The chief reason, perhaps- 
was that the birds of prey, which must' 
have slaughtered an incredible number 
of smaller birds were now almost 
