FALCO PALUMBARIUS. 93 



representing the short-winged hawks, as the gyr-falcon and the 

 peregrine the long-winged falcons or " noble" birds of prey — the 

 nobility being in the height at which they soared. 



It is needless to say it does not breed in Fife, indeed it is 

 questionable if it breeds now in Britain — not even in the High- 

 lands of Scotland, where it was once common. Clearances for 

 sheep and deer preserves, with the cultivation of grouse and 

 black-cock, have done what the gardener does to weeds in the 

 kitchen garden, or to the blackbird in the orchard, or as the starling 

 is said to be doing to the lark on our links and meadows. Neither 

 has the repeated sales of Highland estates from the old families 

 to sporting cockney proprietors tended to prolong its existence ; 

 for, by his extra swarm of gamekeepers the Duke of Leeds tried 

 to extirpate everything in the shape of eagle, falcon, buzzard, 

 harrier, or hawk as worthless " vermin," for the cultivation of 

 grouse, at Applecross in Ross-shire ; whilst those of the Earl of 

 Dudley, who bought the fine Highland estate of Glengarry, 

 in Inverness-shire, from the trustees of the Earl of Aboyne, 

 and re-sold it to another English proprietor, Mr Edward Ellice 

 {who for forty years w T as M.P. for the St Andrews Burghs) — 

 were not less anxious for the extirpation of " vermin." Nor are 

 the native proprietors of the Highlands less willing to extirpate 

 our interesting birds of prey — and close the roads against those 

 they may deem human vermin — than their English successors, 

 who itch to drive off the natives of Britain — human as well as 

 feathered — for the propagation of grouse and deer, and shut up 

 the interesting uncultivated Highlands of Scotland as a mere 

 preserve for so-called sport ; but the time may come when these 

 large tracts of uncultivated mountain land may be utilised as a 

 great public boon for the welfare of the nation. Even 

 " Rhidoroch," or the " Dark Glen," in Cromartyshire, is now 

 added to the already overgrown proprietorship of mountain, 

 moor, and glen by the Duke of Sutherland, through his marriage 

 with the late Duchess, which large track is turned into and 

 named " The Duchess of Sutherland's deer forest." His grand- 

 father earned lasting odium by clearing out the true proprietors — 

 his faithful Highlanders — at Straths Brora and Helmsdale, to 

 make room for sheep and deer. Where once proudly stalked the 

 true proprietors — the hardy mountaineer, and where the goshawk, 

 the eagle, and the falcon skimmed or soared above the mountain 

 peaks, giving character and adding beauty to the grandeur of 

 this dark and wild domain, so naturally suited for Nature's 

 balancers of life, the birds of prey, and which, for grandeur and 



