56 
The Fork-tailed Petrel (Thalassiclroma Leachii). 
Occasionally cast on shore in rough weather. A specimen was 
taken at Stranraer in the winter of 1863. In the west of Scot¬ 
land generally this species is found to he about as numerous as 
the storm petrel. 
The Storm Petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica). 
During the severest winter storms, this diminutive bird of the 
ocean occasionally loses its reckoning, and is blown on shore. We 
have seen specimens taken at Kilbirnie and Kilmarnock, and 
other towns at some distance inland. It breeds in limited 
numbers on Ailsa Craig; and we have seen it flying in small 
groups about midway between that rock and the mainland. 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
In closing this catalogue of the Birds of Ayrshire and Wig¬ 
townshire, we cannot withhold the expression of a belief, in which 
we trust that most persons interested in ornithological pursuits 
will readily join, that the time has now arrived when the protec¬ 
tion of various classes of birds has become a paramount duty. 
We have only to consider the vast diminution of species that has 
taken place during the last thirty years in order to learn the mis¬ 
chief that has resulted from one cause alone—viz., the over-zealous 
destruction of creatures that are supposed to be enemies to game. 
In the exercise of their daily avocations, gamekeepers throughout 
the whole of these districts have, in fact, done more to thin our 
bird population than any other class of men. Birds of prey 
especially have suffered to an almost inconceivable extent—eagles, 
falcons, buzzards, hawks, and owls having been subjected to such 
continual persecution as to be now in some places on the verge of 
extinction as native species. Making due allowance for the ravages 
committed by some of the Raptorial and Corvine species, we believe 
that many of the birds which fall victims to the game preserver’s 
vengeance are totally innocent of the charges laid against them. 
Owls, for example, are for the most part guiltless—their principal 
prey consisting of rats, mice, and other vermin that require to be 
kept in check. Nightjars and dippers are also harmless; and even 
the Kestrel falcon, which shares the fate of the hooded crow or the 
polecat, is not only harmless but useful as a devourer of mice and 
beetles, thus proving itself a friend instead of an enemy. 
