PREFACE. xi 



a good deal of ignorant abuse in regard to the 

 destruction of our rarer breeding birds. I know 

 some who very laudably preserve Golden Eagles, 

 Peregrine Falcons, Buzzards, and Eavens on their 

 property, at the cost of a considerable amount of 

 game, without saying a word about it to anyone. 

 We often hear a good deal about the destruction of 

 the first -named bird, which, unlike its scarcer 

 neighbour, the White -Tailed Eagle, is really in 

 no danger at all. As a matter of fact, the Golden 

 Eagle is now highly valued on many deer forests 

 in Scotland for services rendered. It has a fond- 

 ness for preying upon blue hares, which', when 

 too numerous, render themselves an unmitigated 

 nuisance to the sportsman by giving the alarm all 

 too soon to his ever- watchful quarry. The majority 

 of sportsmen are good field naturalists, and I feel 

 sure that very few of them would be unwilling to 

 allow a really rare predatory bird its natural tithe 

 of weaklings, if approached in a proper spirit. I 

 would commend those who so roundly abuse sports- 

 men and their servants for the loss of a number 

 of predatory birds, that are often whitewashed in 

 ignorance of their true character, to a study of 

 another side of the account, namely the thou- 

 sands and thousands of our sweetest song-birds 

 and their eggs and young, saved every year by a 

 wholesome dread of the man in velveteen. 



I am, however, sorry to say that some game- 

 keepers are mischievous from zeal, ignorance, or 

 inquisitiveness. Only the other day an old watcher 

 laughingly admitted to me that he did not know 



