Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/267

Rh the extinction as breeding species of the bittern, ruff, black-tailed godwit, great bastard, Savi's warbler, and crane. Yet the bittern, after long absence, is nesting once more in the marshes, where it derives protection, private protection be it remembered, and the ruff, too, has returned; there are many suitable places still remaining where these birds might nest if allowed. What has happened with another marsh species, the black-headed gull? Driven from place to place by the drainage of one after another of its haunts, it has still found sites to colonise and wherein to increase. True, there may be factors which explain the increase of one species and the decrease of another which have no connection with the influence, at any rate direct, of man; we can, for instance, explain the increase and spread of the great crested grebe, at one time nearly swept away by the demand for its soft breast plumage—protection gave it the start it needed. But it is hard to imagine that the same factor operated in the case of the turtle-dove. A change of habit and of breeding range may have influenced the godwit and black tern. It is, however, certain that immediately these and other species were seen to be rare their commercial value rose, and they were hunted out of the country by the collector. When Seebohm pointed out that the St. Kilda wren differed from the mainland form it was an evil day for the little islander; one prominent bird protector, now no more, did his utmost to help in extinction of this subspecies.

The Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain recently called attention in The Times to the havoc of commercialism amongst the eiders of Spitzbergen. The motor on the sailing sloop is the engine of destruction, for it enables the egg and down hunters to enter bays and inlets which were unsafe before its introduction. One sloop, at the end of last June, had on board "no fewer than 15,000 eggs." The