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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 their appearance, as they often do on such occasions. 
Although, I don’t think the owl is getting much scarcer in this 
neighbourhood, it is far from being treated as such a useful bird de- 
serves. Where pole-traps are allowed there must always be a large 
number of owls killed. The kestrel (Palco tinnunculus), also a 
harmless bird, living chiefly on mice, cockchafers, &c., falls a 
victim to this hateful invention, The only other hawks we know of 
in this district, are the sparrow-hawk ( Accipiter nisus ), the buzzard 
(Buteo vulgaris), and the merlin ( Faleo salon). 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 think, is nonsense. There is 
nothing in the fact of a bird being in the game list to make it 
more attractive to the hawk ; as game must form a very small 
item in his style of living. Admitting that these hawks are 
enemies to game, there is still something to be said in their favour 
in the interests of sport. Anyone who has read the reports in the 
newspapers regarding the opening day of the grouse-shooting, 
must have observed that the grouse are always not only extremely 
searce, but extremely wild and difficult 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 baftle him 
is to rest on bare, exposed places, where they command a good 
view of the surrounding country, and can withdraw, chuckling at 
his discomfiture, long before he gets within shot. The grouse 
do not adopt these tactics where hawks abound. There they 
know no shelter except under the brown heather, where even 
the keen eye of the enemy overhead fails to detect their cowering 
forms. Some time ago I saw a letter in The 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 thus 
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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