54 REV. H. N. RONAR ON THE DECREASE 
But the keeper has learned his lesson too well, and has 
carried his methods from the pheasant-covers to the moors. 
Now, killing a bird of prey by shooting it is at least a 
sportsmanlike way of doing an evil deed; but to resort to 
poison or to pole-trap is disgraceful. 
One day last April, when crossing a moor in the Lothians, 
my eye was attracted by something flapping in the distance 
beside a mountain tarn. As I drew near, I saw it was a 
Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) caught in a pole-trap. Its 
mate, with something in its mouth, flew off as I came up, 
and I saw it had been attempting to feed the luckless bird 
as it hung in agony, head down, in the grim jaws of the 
trap. Now, I do not love carrion crows. I had found 
not far off this spot a Golden Plover’s (Charadrius pluvialis) 
nest with the eggs sucked, possibly by this very bird; but 
there was only one thing I could do. With great difficulty 
I smothered the bird’s struggles and opened the teeth of the 
trap. I examined the wounded leg by which it had been 
caught, and found that, for a wonder, the bone was not 
broken, so I liberated the poor, tortured creature and rejoiced 
to see him fly free—to be joined almost immediately by his 
mate, still with that choice morsel in her mouth. Then I 
looked about me, and found at the foot of the pole the 
remains of several birds, amongst which I could only identify 
the bodies of a kestrel and a Black-headed Gull (Larus 
ridibundus). 
As for poison, the mischief it may dois enormous. A 
keeper takes a dead kelt or a hare or a lamb and poisons the 
carcase, and exposes it. Of course, every living creature 
which eats any of that bait dies. It may be an eagle, a raven, 
or an osprey, a fox, an otter, or a collie—it matters not. 
Poison cannot discriminate any more than the pole-trap. 
It is surely time that those devil’s weapons were made illegal. 
Then we have also the incessant persecution by gun of 
every raptorial bird. It is a marvel to me that my special 
favourite the Peregrine Falcon (falco peregrinus) is not utterly 
shot out, for that he does destroy game there is no doubt. It 
may seem to be an extreme position to take up, but I am 
prepared to argue that a certain number of raptorial birds 
_ improves a grouse-moor, in the same way as I believe otters 
