VERMIN 233 



shoals, large trout are solitary. He is the least 

 harmful of birds for fish are plentiful enough to 

 yield him his modest share and the most pictur- 

 esque adjunct to a Highland lake. Not even the 

 diving wild fowl are so characteristic. In reading 

 the works of famous naturalists, it strikes one, 

 disagreeably, that, while blaming every other 

 robber, from the grey crow to the professional egg 

 collector, they never lose an opportunity of taking 

 the eggs, or the young. 



A pair of common buzzards, such as I saw the 

 other day sailing, in their characteristic manner, 

 around one of the lower heights, and calling to each 

 other across the diameter of a vast circle, adds 

 a touch of wildness, if not also majesty to the 

 hills themselves. And these common buzzards are 

 becoming uncommon. 



The case of the peregrine falcon, though not 

 so bad, makes one long for the time when the 

 customary building haunt of a pair was placed 

 under the special care of the occupiers of the land, 

 who were made responsible, by the terms of their 

 lease, for the safe keeping of the noble birds, and 

 their offspring. 



Last, and greatest is the golden eagle. When he 

 is seen to strike, in nine cases out of ten, it is the 



