114 THE RING OF NATURE 



has been taken by the peregrine to her brood on 

 the Eagle Rock. 



There are farmers' friends also among the birds 

 of prey. We do not know what the kestrel sees 

 as he hovers in the wind high above the meadow. 

 Doubtless it is some imprudence on the part of 

 a young vole, an incautious skipping from the 

 parental to another clean-cut hole, or an exposure 

 on the bare space usually reserved for nocturnal 

 gambols. Down he swoops, and a superfluous 

 mouseling goes to stay the clamours of the young 

 kestrels. By night, the little owls rejoice at the 

 abundance and tenderness of the same and other 

 young things. 



When we see a young rabbit struck down by 

 Mother Stoat or a song bird snapped up by the 

 sparrow-hawk, we cry involuntarily, * Nature red 

 in tooth and claw.' But the young whitethroats 

 are being fed just as bloodily on the hope of the 

 oak tortrix, the young wagtails are destroying the 

 progeny of the stone -fly, the young tits are spoiling 

 the geometric increase of the aphides that 

 unchecked would soon make the world solid with 

 green fly. 



Nature is full of compensating balances that 

 automatically come into action in proportion to 

 the need for them. You can almost tell the 

 number of caterpillars there are by peeping into 

 a willow-wren's nest to see whether the eggs are 

 five this year or six, for a plentiful year of cater- 

 pillars calls for and gets large broods on the part 



