old hound's stern, as he touches on the drag, calling forth Jem's enthusiastic and confident cheer, succeeded by a challenge. Jack views him; quick and silent as telegraphic intelligence the intimation is given, he is " gone away," when Jem's touch on his horn brings every hound out of covert with quickness defying comparison, settling to the scent with precision inconceivable. The flying pace over the open affords no time for loitering: it is a masterpiece in its kind seldom to be witnessed with other packs.

Does an occasional twinge of podagrical character, or the tormenting pains of rheumatism, give warning of the propriety of seeking remedies, then hie for the springs of old Bladud, where the foxhunter may luxuriate in the renovating properties of the warm baths after a day's hunting with the Duke of Beaufort.

Locate at the York House, the resort of aristocracy and fashion; or, if more disposed to do the thing throughout in true sporting spirit, and associate with men more exclusively devoted to sport, seek the White Lion, make the acquaintance of Mr. William Townsend; and, being a stranger, avail yourself of his valuable assistance in the field as your pilot-that is, when hounds are running keep within sight of him if you can but in mercy do not ride too close upon his heels at the fences, in case of an accident, for he is too good a fellow to be wantonly ridden The White Hart and the Greyhound are also goodly hostelries, all white, as exemplified by their respective signs.

over.

And now for the disposal of the cavalry. Who can desire better accommodation than that catered for by John Haddy? in fact he is in command of nearly all the good hunting stables in the ancient citydispersed in divers localities. He has also a numerous stud, of all sizes, colours, and kinds; to carry all sorts of riders, all sorts of weights, in all sorts of countries. And if the scale of charges here are not quite so low as at Cheltenham, the equestrian department is quite as well, if not better, purveyed.

Hounds have been kept by the dukes of Beaufort throughout so many generations, that the lapse of time renders it difficult to obtain authentic records of the primitive establishment. It is well known that the present Duke has kept them ever since he came to the title his Grace inherited them from his noble father, to whom they came in similar succession from the preceding duke. Originally they hunted stag; but that must have been many a long year since. Kindness, generosity, and affability are heirlooms in the Beaufort family; most valuable properties when such frequent opportunities prevail for their diffusion, centered in the person of a master of hounds. They are not only valuable to the possessor, but likewise to those on whom they shine.

The country over which the Duke of Beaufort hunts has been somewhat limited till last year, when an arrangement was entered into for the Christian Malford district, till then hunted by Mr. Horlock. It now extends from Avening village and Tilheps Inn north of Tetbury to Wick Rocks and Giddy Hall, nearly parallel with Marshfield and Chippenham, on the southern extremity. Iron Acton and Wick-wick are on the western boundary; the eastern, that is the Christian Malford country, is in the neighbourhood of Calne. Those which are situated north of Badminton may be considered out of reach from Bath.

For the sake of avoiding road work, many hunters stand during the

There

season at Crosshands, which is but three miles from the kennel. is a good inn, kept by Ballinger, formerly a livery-stable keeper at Cheltenham, who, knowing so well the requirements of hunters, is sure to provide everything necessary for their accommodation. By this arrangement a wider scope may be embraced than by keeping them at Bath. Yate Toll-bar, Iron Acton, Coalpit Heath, Wick-wick, Wick Rocks, Tormarton, Dyrham Park, West Keynton, Castle-combe, North Wraxhall, Foss Gate, Syston, and Giddy Hall, may be accomplished by early rising; independent of which, the Great Western Railway presents the means of travelling to the best fixtures in the Christian Malford country. The Duke of Beaufort has always been an extensive breeder of hounds; as have also his Grace's noble ancestors. The Badminton blood is therefore anxiously sought for by other masters of hounds when they require fresh strains. They have a distinctive and most aristocratic character blended in their appearance, being mostly badger or grey pies, with some few dark-coloured hounds, black and white tanned, which may be traced to the Duke of Rutland's and Lord Yarborough's kennels. Duncan, by Lord Yarborough's Druid, dam the Badminton Warspite, is a very clever animal, and has been used much as a stud hound. Frankfort, Freeman, Flyer, Dashwood, and Rutland, all remarkably good, have been awarded similar honours. An excellent custom is adopted of presenting a prize to the tenant at whose walk the best puppy is reared: to gain it is a distinction which promotes much competition.

EXTINCTION OF BIRDS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

BY GELERT.

Having alluded briefly, in my last article, to the disappearance of some species of our feathered race from this country, it may not be uninteresting to the naturalist, or unprofitable to the general reader, if the subject be again renewed, and farther inquiry made as to the cause of this partial extinction, and how far a certain branch of our sylvan fraternity are likely to be affected thereby. The study of nature ever has been and ever must be profitable to all; on contemplating her works the mind instinctively reverts to the workman, the Power that creates and regulates the universe, and, lost in wonder at the magnitude of his wisdom, bows down and confesses that "He hath done all things well." Who, that has once read Pope's "Essay on Man," can forget those beautiful lines?

،، Thus, then, to man the voice of Nature spake-
'Go, from the creatures thy instructions take :
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;
The arts of building from the bee receive;
Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave;
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale-
The worker from the work distinct was known,
And simple reason never sought but one.'"'

The gradual but sensible decrease of birds, especially aquatic, must be a source of regret to every naturalist, more particularly if he be a fowler. Various writers on ornithology assure us that at no very dis tant time there existed in this island, cranes, spoonbills, and bustards, we read of cart-loads of ruff and reeve being regularly fatted on bread and milk, and sent to the London market; and our own experience bears testimony to the fact that woodcock, snipe, and common wild. fowl are yearly becoming more and more scarce.

We have no lack of authority to prove that cranes (grus cinerea) were numerous in the days of our ancestors, and were esteemed by them not less as objects of sport than as contributing a dish worthy to be set before a king. In the reign of Henry VIII, a fine of 20 pence, a heavy penalty at that time, was imposed for every egg taken and destroyed; and by Edward VI. farther laws were enacted to save and protect this princely bird. According to Willughby they abounded in the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire; but Pennant, who writes at a later date, regards the crane only as an occasional visitant to our island, and mentions only a few instances of their having been seen in his time. The last on record in this country is mentioned by Selby, who says it was killed in Oxfordshire in the year 1830.

The common spoonbill (platalea leucorodia) is to be found during the summer in greater abundance in Holland than in any other country; but in England specimens were far from rare about the end of the last and beginning of the present century; Pennant, Montagu, Dr. Latham, and Yarrell, all record instances of its occurrence in Great Britain-especially the first, who speaks of a large flight of spoonbills, that settled in the marshes near Yarmouth in the spring of 1774.

The bustard (otis) is another of the all-but-lost birds of the land; naturalists are not agreed as to what family the bustard should belong -Cuvier places it among the e'chèssierså, grallatores, or wading birds, because it has no hind toe like the plover; it resembles, however, in its habits and conformation generally, the gallinaceous order-the turkey for instance, with which undoubtedly it should be more properly classed. The bustard is a noble bird, the male averaging from 25lbs. to 28lbs. in weight. In Norfolk there are still to be found a few specimens. For a full and comprehensive history of this bird, I would refer the reader to the Penny Cyclopædia; but in the event of his not having this admirable work on his shelves, I will quote an extract or two for his edification.

"Ray thus writes (1713-In campis spatiosis circa Novum Mercatum (Newmarket) et Royston oppida in agro Cantabrigiensi, inque planitie, ut audio, Salisburiensi, et alibi in vastis et apertis locis invenitur.' Montagu, in his Dictionary (1802), says that in this locality it had become very rare, from the great price given for the eggs and young to hatch and rear in confinement. In his supplement (1813), he states that not one had been seen there for two or three years previous. We are old enough to remember seeing one, and sometimes two bustards, as the crowning ornaments of the magnificent Christmas larder at the Bush Inn, Bristol, in the reign of John Weeks, of hospitable memory; and we have heard too a romantic story of the last of the Salisbury Plain bustards (a female), coming

into a farmer's barton, as if giving herself up. Graves says that, in the spring of 1814, he saw five birds on the extensive plains between Thetford and Brandon, in Norfolk; from which neighbourhood, in 1819, he received a single egg, which had been found in a large warren. In the autumn of 1819, he adds, a large male bird, which had been surprised by a dog on Newmarket heath, was sold in Leadenhall market for five guineas; and in the same year, he continues, a female was captured, under similar circumstances, on one of the moors in Yorkshire. When the mania for real British specimens of birds was prevalent, the bustards suffered not a little. We know a collector who, about the year 1816, had nine dead bustards before him together; they came from Norfolk. Bustards have been heard of, within these last few years, on North Stow heath, near Culford, in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmund's; and we are happy to be able to state that in the locality from whence Selby obtained his specimen the bustard is still in existence, and most carefully preserved. In this, the western part of Norfolk, a nest is generally hatched off every year. In the summer of 1834 a nest of three eggs was hatched in an open corn-field about half a mile from High House; and in December in that year three great bustards were seen about a mile from it. They shift about from place to place, and are seldom seen but in the open country. We earnestly hope that every one, sportsman or no sportsman, will respect this little remnant of the numerous flocks which once graced our island, and second the endeavours of the spirited owner of the property on which they have found refuge to save the breed of this noble bird from utter extinction in England. In the eastern part of the county we fear that it is quite lost, though it was comparatively common some time ago.

"The extreme rapidity of their running, and the unwillingness to rise on the wing exhibited by these birds, have been the theme of most ornithologists. We have also many accounts of their being coursed with dogs. The following is from Brookes There are also bustards in France, which frequent large open plains, particularly near Chalons, where, in the winter time, there are great numbers of them seen together. There is always one placed as a sentinel, at some distance from the flock, which gives notice to the rest of any danger. They raise themselves from the ground with great difficulty; for they run sometimes a good way, beating their wings before they fly. They take them with hooks baited with an apple or flesh; sometimes fowlers shoot them as they lie concealed behind some eminence or on a load of straw; others take them with greyhounds, which often catch them before they are able to rise.' Selby, who has evidently had good opportunities of observation, thus writes in his illustrations

Although in a state of confinement the bustard becomes tolerably tame to those who are in the habit of attending it, yet it displays at all times considerable ferocity towards strangers; and all attempts to continue the breed in that state have been without success. With respect to its habits in the wild state, it is so shy as seldom to be approached within gun-shot; invariably selecting the centre of the largest inclosure, where it walks slowly about, or stands with the head reposing backwards upon the bare part of its neck, and frequently with one leg drawn up. Upon being disturbed, so far from running

in preference to flight (as has often been described), it rises upon the wing with great facility, and flies with much strength and swiftness, usually to another haunt, which will sometimes be at the distance of six or seven miles. It has also been said, that in former days, when the species was of common occurrence, it was a practice to run the young birds (before they were able to fly) with greyhounds. So far from this possibility existing with the present remnant of the breed, the young birds, upon being alarmed, constantly squat close to the ground, in the same manner as the young of the lapwing, golden plover, &c., and in that position are frequently taken by hand; indeed this is even the habit of the female during incubation.'"

Ruff and reeve (tringa pugnax) were formerly so numerous in Lincolnshire, that fowlers were in the habit of capturing a hundred dozen a week during the spring: they were confined in large wicker cages, fed on bread and milk for a few days, and then forwarded in a state of actual obesity to the London market. Fowlers took them with nets, in the rings which they had stamped for their battles; the male birds fighting furiously, whilst the females looked on with fixed and undisturbable attention.

Wood cock and snipe are also on the wane. Full well do I remember the time when, sallying forth with an old-fashioned tinder-box Manton and a steady brace of spaniels, I could bag any day in the months of November or December, my five and six couple of cocks, and a fair share of snipe; but, now, how is the case altered, in the same covers and at the same period of the year! If you succeed in flushing a couple or two of cocks, it is as much as you can do; and as for snipe, they are proportionately scarce. A bittern too in former days occasionally rose from his sedgy retreat, to whet the fowler's appetiteforming an agreeable contrast to the small and twisting snipe, and a fine mark for his sure and steady aim.

To what cause, then, are we to attribute this deficiency of nature's stock, by which the pleasure of the fowler is contracted and the British Fauna deprived of many useful and ornamental subjects? We would answer that population has so increased, the use of fire-arms has become so universally known, and the face of the country so changed by drainage and enclosure, that these birds have not only lost their means of sustenance and security, but have fallen easy victims, if chance threw them in the way, to every bungling artist or hedgepopping school-boy; besides all this, a certain class of naturalists, yclept "specimen hunters" have been and still are devoting their whole time and attention towards the annihilation of the last relics.

Where you once found a bittern, you would now probably find a "navvie," shovel-in-hand, ready to do battle with you or any other living animal short of a bonassus, if you roused him from his dyke. Chat Moss has been invaded by the Manchester and Liverpool railway; the Bridgwater marshes by the Great Western, and a heavy blow has been struck at the sea itself by Brunel and the South Devon. "But times are altered, trade's unfeeling train Usurp the land and dispossess the swain."

GOLDSMITH'S Des. Village.

The result of all this will be that in a very few years more, the wild