twelfth century, was only to be met with, according to Giraldus de Barri,
in one river in Wales, and another in Scotland. The wolf, once so much
dreaded by our ancestors, is said to have maintained its ground in Ireland
so late as the beginning of the eighteenth century (1710,) though it had
been extirpated in Scotland thirty years before, and in England at a much
earlier period. The bear, which in Wales was regarded as a beast of the
chase equal to the hare or the boar, only perished as a native of Scotland
in the year 1057.

Many native birds of prey have also been the subjects of unremitting
persecution. The eagles, larger hawks, and ravens, have disappeared from
the more cultivated districts. The haunts of the mallard, the snipe, the
redshank, and the bittern, have been drained equally with the summer
dwellings of the lapwing and the curlew. But these species still linger in
some portion of the British isles; whereas the large capercailzies, or
wood grouse, formerly natives of the pine forests of Ireland and Scotland,
have been destroyed within the last fifty years. The egret and the crane,
which appear to have been formerly very common in Scotland, are now only
occasional visitants.

The bustard (_Otis tarda_,) observes Graves in his _British Ornithology_,
"was formerly seen in the downs and heaths of various parts of our island,
in flocks of forty or fifty birds; whereas it is now a circumstance of
rare occurrence to meet with a single individual." Bewick also remarks,
"that they were formerly more common in this island than at present; they
are now found only in the open counties of the south and east, in the
plains of Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and some parts of Yorkshire." In the few
years that have elapsed since Bewick wrote, this bird has entirely
disappeared from Wiltshire and Dorsetshire.