The Scottish Naturalist. 59 



maining, otherwise this noble bird would be lost to us, like 

 many others, from the mania of over game-preserving and over- 

 stocking. 



9. Falco ^salon, Gmel. (Merlin.) 



Not uncommon throughout the district, but more frequently 

 seen in the autumn months, and then chiefly in the plumage of 

 the first year. 



10. TiNNUNCULUs ALAUDARius, Viell. (Kcstrel.) 



Like the Sparrow-Hawk, the Kestrel has held its own perhaps 

 better than most of the tribe, but no thanks to gamekeepers, 

 who, failing the deadly pole-trap (that most iniquitous of all 

 inventions, as no perching bird of sufficient weight is safe from 

 it), shoot down every Kestrel they see. Had keepers a little more 

 knowledge of ornithology and a little more observation, they 

 might more likely be able to distinguish friend from foe. The 

 Kestrel is almost exclusively a mouse-feeder,^ but to impress 

 such a fact on most keepers would be a difficult matter, for were 

 he told that not only do some hawks feed on mice, but some on 

 frogs, some on beetles, and some even on the larvae of bees and 

 wasps, he would simply look upon you as fairly demented, and 

 possibly make the same reply as that which has more than once 

 been made to the writer, "All I ken is, a haak's a haak, an' au 

 haaks are vermin, an' au vermin must be killed ! " And this, I 

 fear, is the fate of all our owls as well as hawks ; for though the 

 former are mostly mouse, rat, and weasel catchers, they come 

 under the same category in the eyes of the keeper, without a 

 moment's thought or observation. Even the White or Barn OavI, 

 I am quite aware, has the character of taking young rabbits ; but 

 this bird being essentially a night-feeder, if young rabbits choose 

 to be out after hours, along with rats and mice, they must just 

 take the consequences, and no blame to the owl. 



II. MiLVUS REGALis, Kaup. (Kite.) 



The Salmon-tailed Glead, as this beautiful bird was familiarly 

 called when once common in all our glens and hill-sides, but 

 which is now all "but exterminated, has still, I am glad to say, a 

 few breeding spots in some of the remoter parts of the Highlands 



^ See note on the Nesting of the Kestrel at Murthly Asylum, by XV^^Jf^r: p j-"<^^ 

 M'Intosh, M.D., 'Scot. Nat.,' April 1877, p. 56. /Cw*^'^^ 



[uj LIBRARY 



