7 o SPRING 



in very much the same way, though its curves are less pro- 

 longed, its wings are more often reset to the changing wind, 

 and their comparative narrowness makes them distinguish- 

 able from those of the broad-winged hawk. Peregrines are 

 true falcons, with pointed wings and dashing flight ; they are 

 far rarer in most woodland districts than the buzzards, and 

 have to contend against greater prejudice owing to their skill 

 in dispatching a grouse. Buzzards are content with dead 

 sheep, and even beetles ; and they have not the raven's 

 merciless habit of attacking weak lambs and sickly ewes in 

 the lambing season. The golden eagle is half a buzzard in 

 form and habits, for all his lordly size. He, too, has a vul- 

 turine taste for carrion, though he also carries off grouse and 

 mountain hares. It is very doubtful whether any golden 

 eagle can carry any larger animal than a good-sized hare ; 

 and the various dramatic stories of sleeping babies being 

 borne to the distant eyrie must be regarded with per- 

 manent suspicion, for none of them can now be verified. 

 In England and Wales the golden eagle is only a very rare 

 wanderer — rarer than the white-tailed or sea eagle, immature 

 specimens of which visit the east coast and other parts of the 

 country not very infrequently. But the golden eagle has 

 grown fairly common in parts of the north of Scotland, 

 after a period of protection under the law ; and it is also 

 said to survive in two Irish counties. 



Of all British hawks, the most characteristic of the moor- 

 lands is the merlin, which is the smallest species, and one of 

 the most truly hawk-like. The cock bird is often called the 

 Blue Hawk, from the slaty-grey of its upper parts; and the 

 name is vaguely applied to both sexes, though the hen is 

 rather brown than blue. Where an outcrop of rain-beaten 

 rock caps some summit of the Welsh or northern moors, the 

 merlin chooses a perch, and sits there for a long while to- 



