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however ; and probably it is a good deal more in favour of the 

 owl, that at well regulated covert-shootings owls are not shot when 

 they make tlieir appearance, as they often do on such occasions. 

 Although, I don't think the owl is getting much scarcer in tbis 

 neighbourhood, it is far from being tre:ited as such a useful bird de- 

 serves. Where pole-traps are allowed there must always be a large 

 number of owls killed. The kestrel (Falco linnunculus), also a 

 harmless bird, living chiefly on mice, cockchafers, Ac, falls a 

 victim to this hateful invention. Tlie only other hawks we know of 

 in this district, are tlie sparrow-liawk (Accipiter uisi(sj,t]ie buzzard 

 (Buteo vulgaris), and tlie merlin (Falco .Esalon). They are all 

 looked upon as deadly enemies to game, and I am not prepared 

 to say that they do not kill game. To say that game forms any 

 considerable portion of their food, I tliink, is non^^onse. There is 

 nothing in the fact of a bird lieing in tlie game list to make it 

 more attractive to the hawk ; as game must form a very small 

 item in Ids style of living. Admitting tliat these hawks are 

 enemies to game, there is still something to be said in their favour 

 in the interests of sport. Anyone wlio has read the reports in the 

 newspapers regarding tlie opening day of the grouse-siiooting, 

 must have observed that the grouse are always not only extremely 

 scarce, but extremely wild and diflicult to approach. Why is this 

 the case ? It is because in most cases the only enemy the grouse 

 have to fear is man, and they find that the best way to baffle him 

 is to rest on bare, exposed places, where tliey command a good 

 view of tlie surrounding country, and can withdraw, chuckling at 

 his discomfiture, long before lie gets witliin sliot. The giouse 

 do not adopt the.se tactics where liawks abound. There they 

 know no shelter except under the lirown lieather, where even 

 the keen eye of the enemy overhead fails to detect their coweiing 

 forms. Some time ago I saw a letter in Tlic Field, from the 

 owner of a grouse moor in the Hebrides, stating that in conse- 

 quence of his not allowing birds of prey to be killed on his moor, 

 he was enabled to shoot over days the whole season, and tiius 

 have good sport without resorting to the driving system. There 

 is, therefore, something to be said even for the sparrow-hawk, 

 the buzzard, the peregrine falcon, and the merlin, from the sports- 

 man's standpoint ; while, as for the other animals to which I 

 have referred, the balance of evidence is in favour of their pre- 

 servation. In these days of associations for all purposes under 

 the sun, I think it is high time there was an association for the 



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