226 Poachers and Poaching. 



presence far outweighs any harm it may do. 

 The artificial methods of game-rearing now in 

 vogue are most conducive to disease. In ex- 

 tenuation of the thefts of our little marauders it 

 may be pleaded that they invariably pick off the 

 weak and ailing birds, and therefore tend to the 

 survival of robust and healthy stock. 



The presiding spirits of the moors are the 

 beautiful little merlins. They work together, 

 and quarter the heather like a brace of well- 

 broken pointers. Not an object escapes them. 

 However closely it may conform to its environ- 

 ment, or however motionless remain, it is de- 

 tected by the sharp eye of the merlin and put away. 

 The miniature falconry in which the merlin 

 indulges on the open moorlands, where nothing 

 obstructs the view, is one of the most fascinating 

 sights in nature. The "red hawk" is plucky 

 beyond its size and strength, and will pull down 

 a partridge, as we have witnessed repeatedly. 

 The young of moorfowl, larks, pipits, and sum- 

 mer snipe constitute its food on the fells. It 

 lays four bright red eggs in a depression among 

 the heather, and about this are strewn the re- 

 mains of the birds indicated. To be seen to 

 advantage this smallest of British falcons ought 

 to be seen in its haunts. It is little larger than 

 a thrush, and in the days of falconry was flown 

 by ladies, its game being larks, pipits, pigeons, 

 and occasionally partridges. On the moorlands 



