Excerpt from Lost British Birds
The species described as lost in this paper, are those which were summer residents and breeders, or inhabitants all the year round, of some part of Great Britain, but which no longer breed in this country and visit our shores only as rare stragglers, or, bi-annually, in their migrations to and from their breeding areas on the continent of Europe. In other words, if the British race be extinct the species is here regarded as lost, however abundant it may be elsewhere. Perhaps it would be safer to say if practically extinct; since I have included species of which one or two pairs are still known to breed within the kingdom. In the case of the ruff and reeve, for instance, Professor Newton is inclined to think that I have been a "little premature." Taking the word "lost" in this restricted sense, I do not think that ornithologists will find that I am very much out in my list, which I have been assisted in making by two friends, both authorities in questions of this kind - Mr. J. E. Harting, and Professor Newton himself. It is certainly difficult to know where to draw the line, and having once determined to include species that are practically extinct, like the hen-harrier and the ruff and reeve, there were others, like the osprey and sea-eagle, which it seemed unreasonable to omit. But it was necessary to draw the line somewhere, and it was thought best to leave out any species represented by at least three or four pairs that have some measure of protection afforded to them when breeding.
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