ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 



The diurnal birds of prey — the Eagles, the 

 Falcons and the Hawks — stand at the head of the 

 feathered races. Born in the purple, accustomed 

 to Avork their sovereign will upon legions of weaker 

 subjects, high-handed and intolerant, their ferocity 

 has at least the fine qualities of courage, strength 

 and endurance. 



The Golden Eagle is a king by nature. En- 

 throned on inaccessible rock, he brooks no peer. 

 The trembling serfs below — the lapwing, the cur- 

 lew and the grouse — crouch to earth at his ap- 

 proach. They know him to be the lord of life and 

 death. 



To the bird-lover, the pity of it is that the Rap- 

 tores should be so rare in Great Britain. True, 

 owing to wise preservation, the Golden Eagle ma}' 

 now be frequentlv seen in the Scottish Highlands, 

 soaring in wide circles above his ancestral hills, 

 and the smaller hawks, and even the Peregrine, 

 once the pride of British Falconry, are still con- 

 stantly to be met with. But the fact remains that 

 of the twenty-two species of Falconid^ which are 



included in the British list, some four or five 

 I 



