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the traditional hostility of the gamekeeper, who is only too often 
paid expressly for the destruction of animals that he has been 
taught to regard as vermin, as well as to the greed of the collector, 
that the gradual extermination of our native animals is chiefly due. 
Gun, net, snare, trap, and poison are all employed against them 
without mercy ; and the work of extirpation is furthered, in the 
case of birds, by persistent harrying of the nests under one pretext 
or another.* 
Fortunately, a few of our nobler birds yet contrive to escape, 
and there are perhaps four, or it may be, five, places in the two 
counties where we may still boast of the eyrie of that once highly- 
prized companion of all that was knightly and noble, the Peregrine 
Falcon; and we may perhaps count as many nesting places of 
* In reference to this subject the following letter, which was read at the 
Workington Annual Meeting, may be inserted here with advantage. 
Derwent House, Ashton Lane, Sale, 
near Manchester, May 16th, 1881. 
Dear Sir,—As I am unable to be present at the meeting at Workington, and 
I see you are reading a paper on a kindred subject, I take the liberty of asking 
you (if you take the view I do) to bring before our fellow-members the question 
of the Birds of Prey in the Lake District. 
The damage done by the falcons is certainly so small that there is no excuse 
for shooting them down ; and their nests are becoming rarer each year. 
The raven also has fared badly lately, as prices that would tempt the shep- 
herds have been offered by middlemen, who send the young birds to London ; 
and in some cases, I am sorry to say, private individuals have paid high prices 
to get every egg and young bird possible. 
The consequence is that about the Keswick district we have distinctly fewer 
birds than formerly ; and I fear, unless a stop is put to this useless destruction, 
the Raven and some of our rarer birds will soon be as extinct as the Dodo. I 
have been making some eftorts privately to put a stop to these depredations, 
and if the society used its influence with the owners of land in the district, I feel 
sure the matter might soon be settled in favour of the birds. 
If you feel the interest I do in this, and would kindly say a word or two to 
our fellow-members, a great deal might be done in that way, as, after all, the 
influence of private individuals is perhaps the most powerful. 
Hoping you may have a successful meeting, believe me, dear sir, yours truly, 
ALBERT NICHOLSON. 
J. G. GOoDcHILD, Esq. 
t 
