BRITISH BIRDS. lOl 



themselves. Spallanzani relates an instance of a large 

 mastiff that was attacked and killed by a golden eagle. 



The nests are mostly built of sticks in lofty trees, but 

 some of them breed on ledges of rocks, and resort to the 

 same place for many years in succession. 



The eggs are two for the larger species, and three or four 

 for the smaller ; mostly with a white ground colour, more 

 or less spotted and marked with red, which latter colour, 

 in the case of the merlin and kestrel, almost obscures the 

 former. As a rule, the eggs are rather rotund in form, but 

 a few are elliptical. They all pair for life, and the couples 

 are very affjctionate together. 



Many of them have bred in captivity, in which they 

 endure very well when correctly treated, living to a great 

 age. 



It is a great mistake to so ruthlessl}' persecute these fine 

 birds, for even granting that they destroy a head or two of 

 game here and there, they certainly do good by preventing 

 the undue increase of small birds, and the various rodents, 

 which become so mischievous when their multiplication 

 (fostered by supplies of artificial food) remains unchecked. 



Then, if it be permissible to refer to testhetics in this 

 connection, what a charm is added to the landscape by the 

 soaring eagle or the graceful and rapidly gliding hawk. At 

 once they attract the eye, so buoyant and airy is their 

 flight, and so elegant and well adapted for their mode of 

 life is their form. It is a positive loss to everyone, even the 

 farmer and the game preserver, to exterminate them, and in 

 some places this has been discovered when it was too late, 

 and vast hordes of mice, voles, and rats have devastated the 

 country, for the balance of Nature had been destroyed by 

 the destruction of the winged police that were made to 

 keep the vermin in order. 



In former daj'-s, when the sport of " hawking" was more 



