Lost British Birds. 
29 
and insignificant the forms may be, the game-preserver’s 
action may be regarded as on the whole more beneficial 
than harmful. To all others this accidental benefit will not 
appear a thing to be grateful for, but, on the contrary, a 
very poor exchange. When the trees have shed their 
foliage we are best able to take stock of our remaining 
resident land species ; and, excepting only the comparatively 
large omnipresent rook and wood-pigeon, and the couple of 
artificially-protected and semi-domestic game birds, what 
species do we find in the cultivated and preserved country ? 
The cloud of sparrows in the rickyard ; the congregations of 
larks and starlings in the fields and meadows ; the swarm of 
mixed finches in the stubbles and along the hedge-rows ; 
blackbirds and thrushes in the woods and copses ; and, over- 
