TO MERVYN POWYS DUCK SHOOTING 147 



summer months on our river, as George Hunt is 

 away. 



' I hope to get the third number of my book 

 out before very long.' 



To the same. 



Lilford : August 4, 1886. 



' The idea of an owl trap is perfectly repug- 

 nant to me, still more that of a buzzard caught 

 therein. The owls are distinctly beneficial to 

 man from the number of rats and mice that they 

 destroy. Did not your respected uncle get the 

 owl put into the protected schedule ? When I 

 knew Wales, alas ! a long time ago, buzzards 

 were by no means uncommon either in N. or 

 S. Wales ; but gamekeepers do not discriminate, 

 and for the most part their masters do not care, 

 and reckon as vermin everything that is not 

 game, so that I suppose the buzzards are dis- 

 appearing in Wales as they are elsewhere ; but 

 I am glad to hear on good authority that a pair 

 of Kites still linger in the county of Carmarthen. 

 The latest about the Night Heron is that he has 

 often been seen by Hall about dusk, fishing in 

 the Wadenhoe mill-pool, and within the last 



