SPORT OF BUTE. 10.9 



I knew of four kestrels' nests on my Bute 

 shootings last spring, most picturesquely placed 

 on lonely points of rock, but did not permit any 

 of them to be molested, with the exception of 

 a young one, which my boys reared along with 

 a sparrow-hawk of the same age. They never 

 quarrelled, got into fine feather about the end 

 of July, and seemed quite contented in their 

 enormous cage. The kestrel once escaped, and 

 flew about the old trees and tower in a restless 

 unhappy manner, and seemed delighted when it 

 found the way back to captivity, not unlike those 

 inhabitants of the city suburb, who have learned 

 to prefer their close den to the wildest freedom. 



I am sorry to bring a case of poaching against 

 the respectable and industrious rook ; but in dry- 

 seasons, when the parched ground refuses the 

 usual supply of slugs and worms, these birds are 

 very destructive among the eggs of the pheasant 

 or partridge preserve. The charge of devouring 

 young birds has never, so far as my research goes, 

 been brought home to rooks, although members 

 of the same order, but partners in a smaller firm, 

 have been convicted of kidnapping and murder- 



