THE TEMPLES OF THE HILLS 275 



sants driven to the guns, they decreed the complete 

 extirpation of our noblest native species: 



The birds, great Nature's happy commoners, 

 That haunt in woods: 



raven and buzzard, goshawk, kite, harrier-hawks, 

 and peregrine. Besides these, a score of species of 

 less size were also considered detrimental to the 

 interests of the noble poultry-killer. Nor is this all. 

 Incidentally the keepers, the men with guns in their 

 hands who patrol the woods, have become the sup- 

 pliers to the dealer and private collectors of every 

 rare and beautiful bird they can find and kill. 



But I wish now to write only of the large species 

 named above. They are not very large — they might 

 almost be described as small compared with many 

 species in other lands — but they were the largest 

 known throughout the greatest portion of England; 

 they were birds that haunt in woods, and, above 

 all, they were soaring birds. Seen on high in placid 

 flight, circling and ascending, with the sunlight fall- 

 ing through the translucent feathers of their broad 

 wings and tail, they looked large indeed — large as 

 eagles and cranes. They were a feature in the land- 

 scape which made it seem vaster and the clouds 

 higher and the sky immeasurably further away. 

 They were something more: the sight of them and 

 the sound of their shrill reiterated cries completed 

 and intensified the effect of Nature's wildness 

 and majesty. 



It is the loss of these soaring species which spoils 



