Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/754

736 BIRDS [GEOGRAPHICAL (1688) to breed in Suffolk, as it formerly had clone in Norfolk. The Capercally (Tetrao urogallns) we know to have frequented the indigenous pine-forests of Ireland and Scotland. In the former it had most likely become extinct soon after 1760, and in the latter not much later. Not a single specimen of the British stock of this bird is known to exist in any museum, but the species has been success fully introduced from Sweden into Scotland during the last forty years, and is now certainly increasing in num bers. The Bustard (Otis tarda), which once tenanted the downs and open country of England from Dorset to the East Riding of Yorkshire, vanished from Norfolk, its last stronghold as a British Bird, in 1838. From other counties it had before disappeared. It is well worthy of note that all the four species just mentioned were pro tected to a certain degree by Acts of Parliament, but these laws only gave immunity to their eggs and none to the parent-birds during the breeding season, thus shewing how futile is the former when compared with the latter, since there are very many species whose nests from time out of mind have been and are yearly pillaged without any dis astrous consequences arising from the practice. 1 It would be impossible here to name the many Birds which, once numerous in the British Islands, have now so much diminished as to be rightly considered scarce, or to recount the various causes to which their diminution is due. The persecution of Birds-of-prey seems to have begun with the keepers of poultry, to whom the Kite (Milvus ictinus) and the Hen-Harrier (Circus cyaneus] were a sore trouble, 2 but it has been actively followed up by game- preservers, and this to their own cost, as the ravages of the Grouse-disease testify. 3 To the reclaiming of waste lands, the enclosure of open spaces, and the greater care bestowed on timber trees (by removing those that being decayed are much infested with insects) must, however, be attributed the extermination or rarification of far more species than the direct action of man has been able to effect. 4 Still what we lose in one direction we gain in another, and while Birds- of-prey and Wild-fowl are being banished, the smaller denizens of the woodlands, gardens, and arable fields are unquestionably more numerous than ever. 5 The change is, of course, not satisfactory to the naturalist or to the lover of wild scenery, but to some extent it seems inevitable ; yet well directed laws for the protection of those birds which suffer worst in the unequal contest may delay their impending fate, and preserve to our posterity the most pleasing features of many a landscape and the grateful opportunities of studying many a curious and interesting species. Thanks, perhaps, to the stronger constitution of most Pabearctic Birds, the votaries of what is called "acclimatiza tion " have obtained little success in these islands, for the 1 The singular wisdom of the old command (Deut. xxii. 6) the most ancient " game-law " (using the term in its widest sense) in existence has here a curious exemplification. 2 The Bohemian Schaschek, who visited England about 1461, says he had nowhere seen so many Kites as around London Bridge (Bibl. Lit. Ver. Stuttgart, vii. p. 40). And the statement is confirmed by Belon (065. ad. fin. Clus. Exot. p. 108), who says that they were scarcely more numerous in Cairo than in London, feeding on the garbage of the streets and even of the Thames. From the same writer (Hist. Nat. Oyseaux, p. 131) it would seem that at that time (1555) they, and Ravens also, were protected by law in the City ! The Hen-Harrier s name is enough to shew what was thought of it in days when it abounded. 3 In Transbaikalia, the Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbaius), which was formerly common, has of late been completely exterminated, through persecution prompted by the desire to obtain its feathers, which are highly valued. Von Middendorff, Sibir. Reise, iv. p. 851. 4 The extermination from Europe of the Francolin (Francolinus vulgaris) has been treated at some length by Lord Lilford (Ibis, 1862, p. 352) without his being able to assign any cause for the fact. B Report from the Select Committee on Wild Birds Protection, &c. (House of Commons *, 1873. Appendix, pp. 188-193. exotic specieswhich it hasbeen attempting to introduce have, almost without exception, failed to establish themselves. The efforts made in some British colonies particularly in Australasia are unfortunately too likely not to be success ful ; and, when their own peculiar fauna has been half extirpated, our fellow-subjects at the antipodes will pro bably have good reason to lament the extraordinary senti ment that has led them to introduce from other countries birds which, in the absence of their natural checks, will be nothing else than a positive nuisance ; for so reckless is the manner in which they have been imported, that species possessing few or exceedingly doubtful recommendations to begin with have been carried over in abundance, and some of these cannot fail to become permanent settlers equally with those for the transportation of which the would-be " acclirnatizers " might find themselves excused. All, however, in the battle of life will contribute first to the subdual and by degrees to the disappearance of the original inhabitants, which had hitherto constituted a fauna, from a scientific point of view, perhaps the most interesting on the face of the globe. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS. It is admitted by nearly all naturalists that the study of the extinct organisms of any country leads the investigator of them to a proper appreciation of its existing flora or fauna ; while, on the other hand, a due consideration of the plants or animals which may predominate within its bounds cannot fail to throw more or less light on the changes it has in the course of ages undergone. That is to say that the Distribution of forms in Time is a subject so much connected with the Distribution of forms in Space, that the one can hardly be separated from the other. Granting this as a general truth, it must yet be acknow- Scarci lodged as a special fact, which some of the preceding Ornitl paragraphs will perhaps have foreshadowed, that in fossil Ornithology we have as yet but scanty means of arriving at any precise results which will justify bold generalization in the matter of aviarian distribution. Remains of extinct forms of Birds are, compared with those of other classes of Vertebrates, exceedingly scarce, and in accordance, there fore, with the prevalent practice of naturalists they have been but little investigated. If we except France and New Zealand and in the latter no fossil ornithic relies can be assigned to any very ancient epochs little has been done. The discovery in the former of somewhat early remains of Birds, allied to those which we at present only know as denizens of a tropical region, and the recognition of far later remains of species identical with those that now flourish in arctic lands, merely corroborates what is from numerous sources within the knowledge of every geologist the vicissitudes, namely, of which that part of Europe has had experience. Though in this quarter of the globe we now have no indigenous Struthious Birds, the former existence of Struthious Birds even in England proves very little, because we know that some of such birds (the species of South-American Rhca, for instance) can main tain themselves in lands which are subject to a climate as fitful, if not as severe, as our own. All that can be justly inferred thence is that Struthious Birds were not formerly confined to their present limits, and possibly that such birds once pervaded the greater part of the earth s surface. The Archceopteryx and Odontoptcryx from their singularity prove nothing in respect of Geographical Distribution. Perhaps in the whole range of zoology there is no class from the fossil remains of which we learn less as regards the physical history of our planet than we do from the Birds. We, therefore, have to turn to the other side of the ques

tion of Distribution, and try to find out whether the