292 The Scottish Naturalist. 



one having the good of his country at heart ought to demand — that 

 these animals should not only be spared, but closely protected. 

 Look at the doings of the French in a similar matter, and look at 

 the result; the same may be said of the gardeners in and around 

 London, who lately took to killing the small birds, and the re- 

 sult was the increase to such an extent of several species of flies, 

 that people had their fruit-trees not merely injured, but totally 

 destroyed. To this it may be answered, that we have now got 

 acts of parliament to prevent such doings. Acts have lately 

 been passed which point in the right direction, but fall miser- 

 ably short of what ought to be. 



Let it not be supposed that I am of opinion that hawks 

 do not kill game birds, for this I admit they do, especially 

 the Peregrine; but while admitting it, I hold that they ought 

 to be allowed to live, and for that very purpose, because it is 

 evident their preservation is necessary to keep our game in 

 good healthy condition. This condition is maintained by 

 killing off weakly and sickly birds, and keeping strong ones 

 in watchful healthy motion, since it appears as essentially neces- 

 sary for the lower orders of creation, and perhaps the higher 

 also, to have some neighbour for whom they require to be on 

 their guard. Shew me a people who fancy that they have subdued 

 all their enemies, and have given themselves up to ease and 

 luxurious living, and you at the same time exhibit a nation 

 dropping into feeble, listless effeminacy, if not absolute decay. 

 So it is with our game ; kill off their natural enemies, and you 

 destroy the balance of nature, and disease and death is the sure 

 and natural result. Thus it hath been, and thus it will continue 

 to be, if the present short-sighted policy is continued. An able 

 writer* observes, " If the innocence of infancy is touching, still 

 more so is the even more harmless character which (overlooking 

 carnivorous instincts implanted in certain families for a wise 

 p.irpose) attaches to the lower animals. It is common, under the 

 influence of prejudice, to do gross injustice to the characters of 

 these denizens of nature's common. We do not sufficiently re- 

 flect on their respectable qualities." This is most true, nay, la- 

 mentably true as regards our rapacious birds. Again, the same 

 writer says, " The carnivorous animals are simply the police and 

 undertakers of the inferior creation, preventing their too great 

 increase, and cfearing off all such as grow weakly and die, ere 



* Vestiges c/f the Natural History of Creation. 



