286 HAWK 



much thought of in days of yore, eventually came to be considered 

 as noxious vermin and marked out for destruction, as may be 

 gathered from the fact of 462 kestrels or red hawks having been 

 destroyed in one place, Glengarry, between Whitsunday 1837 and 

 Whitsunday 1840, while, of other six kinds, 340 were slaughtered, 

 but the process of extermination is gone about in a still more 

 wanton manner in Sweden and Norway, where, at the instigation 

 of the State no less, over 13,000 were destroyed in one year. The 

 ger-falcon was once general in the Highlands, but is now destroyed 

 by senseless gamekeepers, etc., while the peregrine still survives. 

 Macnaughton frequently refers to this latter bird in his poems. 

 The hobby is a special enemy to the lark. The merlin is thought to 

 be the smallest hawk existing. The sparrowhawk is also named 

 "claw-hawk," from the length and sharpness of its claws. The 

 kite or salmon-tailed gled ranks among the most graceful of birds ; 

 though rare, it is frequently refeiTcd to in Celtic poetry and 

 proverbs. The buzzard again is a lazy, cowardly, foul-eating bird, 

 while the rough-legged buzzard is proverbially clumsy. Rob 

 Roy, among other loving Highland epithets, was called the hawk. 

 " Bu tu seabhag an t-sluaigh ris an cainteadh Rob ruadh," thou 

 wast the hawk of the people, who wast called Rob Roy. It is 

 thought that this was the origin of the saying by Sir Walter Scott, 

 as found in his Marmion : — 



" When the gled's in the blue cloud. 

 The laverock lies still. " 



The idea of might and destruction conveyed in above is 

 excelled by the account, found in the Rennes Di?msenchus by 

 Whitley Stokes, of a hawk that ate up the horse herds, and the 

 flocks and the human beings by twos and threes, eventually 

 devouring its own fosterer. 



In regard to the preceding description of the wanton destruction 

 of hawks and other birds of prey, an interesting account is given 

 of the discovery of a license by no less a personage than the 

 Duke of Hamilton (Douglas) to a Hugh M ^Galium, gamekee[)er, 

 Arran, of date 16th September 1779, wherein the "premiums 

 for destroying birds of prey in Arran " is as follows : — 



Arrant Castle, 15th September 1779. 



Premiums for destroying birds of prey in Arran :— 



An eagle ...... 



For the nest of an eagle .... 



A game hawk ..... 



For the nest of a game hawk, the young ones alive 

 A white kite ..... 



For the nest of a white kite 



A common kite ..... 



For the nest of a common kite . 



A raven ...... 



For a raven's nest ..... 



A hooded crow . . 



