224 Poachers and Poaching. 



butterfly, and is stricken down in the act by the 

 hawk ; the keeper kills the raptor, and the 

 keeper's hobnobbing with death is delayed but a 

 while. 



The greatest and smallest murder but to live, 

 and whilst the eagle kills the lordly stag, the 

 merlin is lark-hawking on the down. Only 

 those whose harvest is gleaned in the open, who 

 have observed in all weathers and through every 

 hour of the day and night, can form any 

 adequate conception of how dependent is one 

 form of life upon another. The way of an 

 eagle in the air is one of those things concern- 

 ing which -Solomon professed himself unable to 

 understand, and the scythe-like sweep of wings 

 of the majestic bird is one of the most glorious 

 sights which nature has to offer. Just as the 

 eagle is the largest, so the merlin is the smallest 

 British bird of prey, and to see this miniature 

 falcon rush past on the breast of a mountain 

 storm gives an idea of its almost marvellous 

 velocity of flight. Within the whole range of 

 animate nature, nowhere is the adaptation of 

 means to an end more strikingly exhibited than 

 among the raptors the plunderers. The furred 

 poachers are not less appropriately fitted with 

 their weapons of destruction ; and so perfectly 

 adapted is the otter to its environment that its 

 movements in the water are as the very poetry 

 of motion. 



