THE TEMPLES OF THE HILLS 281 



they decreed the complete extirpation of our noblest 

 native s[)ecies: 



The birds, great Xaturc's happy commoners, 

 That liauiit in woods: 



Rc'iveii anil Im/.zard, j^oshawk, kite, harrierdiawks, and 

 peregrine. Besides tiiesc, a score of species of less size 

 were also consiilercd detrimental to the interests of the 

 noble poultry-killer. Nor is this all. Incidentally the 

 keepers, the men with gims in their hands who patrol 

 the woods, have become the suppliers 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 falling 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 landscape which made it seem 

 vaster and the clouds higher and the sky immeasurably 

 farther 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 



