268 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



in general are to the lover of wild life in countries 

 where these birds are permitted to exist, and, in a 

 minor degree, even in this tame England this land 

 of glorified poultry-farms. There is no more fascinat- 

 ing spectacle in wild life than the chase of its quarry 

 by a swift-winged hawk ; and on this account I should 

 be inclined to put hawking above all other sports but 

 for the feeling which some of us can never wholly 

 get away from, that it is unworthy of us as rational 

 and humane beings possessing unlimited power over 

 all other animals, to take and train any wild rapacious 

 creature to hunt others to the death solely for the 

 pleasure of witnessing its prowess. No such disturbing 

 feeling can affect us in witnessing the contests of bird 

 with bird in a state of nature. Here pursuer and 

 pursued are but following their instincts and fulfilling 

 their lives, and we as neutrals are but spectators of 

 their magnificent aerial displays. Such sights are 

 now unhappily rare with us. At one period of my life 

 in a distant country they were common enough, and 

 sometimes witnessed every day for weeks at a stretch. 

 Here the noblest of our hawks are all but gone. The 

 peregrine, the most perfect of the falcons perhaps, 

 as some naturalists think, the most perfect of the entire 

 feathered race maintains a precarious existence on 

 the boldest sea-cliffs, and as to the hobby, it is now 

 nearly extinct. The courageous little merlin does not 

 range in southern England, and is very rare even in 

 its northernmost counties. The kestrel is with us still, 

 and it is beautiful to see him suspended motionless in 



