Lost British Birds . 
25 
provincial phrase by which the fen-men designate one of 
these birds in the breeding plumage, is exactly the creature 
which all bird preservers eagerly snatch up, being purchased 
not only by the naturalist but by anyone desiring a “ pretty 
object in a glass case.” 
In this, its favourite county, it lingered on, as a breeder, 
long after Lubbock’s time. Stevenson, in the second 
volume of his Birds of Norfolk (1870) laments the loss 
within recent times of the avocet, black tern, and black¬ 
tailed godwit, and adds : “ The Ruff and the Reeve, repre¬ 
sented by only a few pairs and in but one locality, must 
shortly be added to the list if the timely protection of the 
law be not invoked to protect it.” He also says : “ So strong, 
I believe, is the attachment of certain birds to the place of 
their birth, and so unerring the instinct which directs them, 
though absent in winter, to return year after year to the 
