BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 75 



closure of land, falconry is virtually an extinct form of sport, 

 and the few rich men who still keep the flame alive have 

 mitiofated the horrors which aroused the indignation of 

 Gifford. "Humanity," says he, "has seldom obtained a 

 greater triumph than in the abolition of this execrable 

 pursuit." . . . "The blood runs cold while we peruse the 

 calm instructions of the brutal falconer, to impale, tie down, 

 fasten by the beak, break the legs and wings of living 

 pigeons, herns and herons, for the hourly exercise of the 

 hawk, who was thus enabled to pull them to pieces without 

 resistance." 



At one time, being protected, all " British " hawks were 

 common in Enorland, and showed no more fear of man than 

 they do at the present day in India. Indeed, they seemed to 

 display rather a preference for his neighbourhood, following him 

 when in the field, breeding familiarly in buildings, and making 

 dove-cots and poultry-yards their feeding-ground. But now, 

 having learned by a couple of centuries of persecution that they 

 have become unpopular, the hawks avoid humanity and all its 

 ways. Even the common species keep out of sight as much 

 as possible, and some have left the country altogether, or 

 retired to the wildest portions of the islands. The peregrine, 

 for instance. Is found at times only here and there in Scotland — 

 and occasionally on cliffs on the Cornish, Welsh, or Cumbrian 

 coasts — and Its eyrie is there, as a rule, in the midst of the 

 most desolate scenery. Like the eagle, it has its favourite 



