20 SPRING 



prey are distributed in proportion to the abundance of their 

 diet, and when the prey shows an abnormal increase, the 

 birds increase too. But although birds of prey can never 

 have swarmed in ordinary seasons, from the very nature of 

 their habits, yet there can hardly have been a single district 

 in the whole of our islands where some kind of eagle or 

 hawk was not a familiar dweller, and as well known as the 

 swallow or the wood-pig«on. It is sadly different to-day. 

 In many parts of the country even the appearance of a 

 kestrel is a treat not to be seen every day, and a whole year 

 may pass without seeing a hawk of any other kind. Even 

 in the select districts where buzzards as well as kestrels are 

 still plentiful, and peregrines not rare, the eye probably will 

 look long before it sees the merlin, and may look as long as 

 it likes before it falls on the sea-eagle or the osprey. The 

 larger stars have fallen out of the firmament, and the lesser 

 lights do not increase to fill their places. 



A sort of private census of the rare birds of prey nesting 

 each year in Britain is kept by many naturalists who do 

 not publish information of the results, for fear of indicating 

 some of the last refuges; and with a few exceptions, the 

 annual story is still one of decline. Protection has set the 

 golden eagle in Scotland well beyond the risk of extinction 

 for the present, and it still lingers in one or two counties in 

 Ireland. It is a bird which likes mountain scenery and a 

 moorland diet, including grouse and hares, and probably 

 never inhabited the lowland parts of England, though it was 

 a regular dweller in the north. Sleepless protection in the 

 nesting season has also saved the last kites in central Wales, 

 and enabled them to increase their numbers to between two 

 and three dozen birds. Eight or nine years ago these came 

 within an ace of extinction, though only a century back they 

 were still common in most parts of England. Montagu's 



