CHAPTER XLVIL WINGED VERMIN. 



HAWKS AND OWLS. 



TT has so long been the custom to see in all hawks, and 

 even owls, the personification of " varmintcy," that we 

 shall, no doubt, be held by many to be very wide of the 

 mark in claiming for the owls and most of the hawks far 

 greater leniency at the hands of the game preserver than 

 has hitherto been accorded. Although there are several 

 hawks and one or two owls whose habits, if strictly in- 

 quired into, would lead to no pleasant disclosures, there 

 are only two or three whose modes of existence warrant 

 persecution by the game preserver. The greater part of 

 the hawks and owls which still bestow their company 

 upon us are new becoming so scarce that, if we want to 

 continue to reckon them among our British birds, their 

 preservation will be as necessary as that of the pheasant 

 and our other game, and it is therefore needful to advise 

 gamekeepers and others not to be too ruthless in the 

 destruction of hawks, but to kill only those whose num- 

 bers and destructiveness would otherwise prove a hin- 

 drance to the rearing of game. 



