DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN COLOUR OF BIRDS. 263 



forth against them is far too comprehensive and sweeping, 

 and many perfectly innocent birds go to swell the game- 

 keeper's list of " vermin." But I have gone fully into this 

 subject before. 



One advantage certainly results from birds of prey being 

 killed off: blackbirds, thrushes, and numerous other beautiful 

 little birds, increase in proportion as their enemies are de- 

 stroyed. In several districts where a few years ago these 

 birds were very rare they are now abundant. 



The ring-ousel, too, is one of the birds who has benefited 

 by this destruction of its enemies. There are some other 

 birds, such as the wheat-ear and tit-lark, who are seldom 

 killed by a hawk, but whose nests and young are the constant 

 prey of weasels and other ground-vermin. These also have 

 good reason to thank the trapper. Wood-pigeons, whose eggs 

 were formerly taken by the crows and magpies in great 

 numbers, and whose young served to feed many kinds of 

 hawks, now increase daily, and begin to be a subject of great 

 complaint amongst farmers ; and yet the wood-pigeon during 

 a great part of the year feeds on the seeds of many weeds 

 and plants which are useless to mankind. The eggs of birds 

 are in general more or less concealed from their enemies, 

 either by the nest being similar in colour to the surrounding 

 substances, or by its situation ; but the eggs of the wood- 

 pigeon are particularly exposed to the attacks of crows, mag- 

 pies, &c. Their young, too, are constantly stolen out of the 

 nest by hawks and owls. It is a singular circumstance con- 

 nected with the " table arrangements " of these birds of prey, 

 that they never carry off the young wood-pigeons till they 

 are nearly fledged and ready to fly. 



The ptarmigan's chance of escape from birds of prey is 

 much better : they are exactly the colour of the stones in 

 summer, and of the snow in winter, and change their colour 

 as that of their abiding place is altered. The grouse is as 

 nearly the colour of the brown heather as it is possible for a 

 bird to be ; his bright eye and red comb are the only discover- 

 able points about him when he is crouched in it. The black- 

 cock's usual haunt is in lower situations, and he delights in 

 the peat-moss, where the ground is nearly as black as his 

 own plumage. The partridge and quail are exactly similar 

 in colour to the dried grass or stubble, and the quickest eye 

 can seldom see them on the ground when crouched, and not 

 erect or moving about to feed. The pheasant's colour very 



