WILD LIFE ON THE SUSSEX DOWNS 



more numerous in certain parts of England than they 

 have been for several generations. In one field of 

 clover in East Sussex — a twelve-acre piece— the late Sir 

 Anchitel Ashburnham's sons shot, in the course of a 

 fortnight, no less than fifty of these birds — an extra- 

 ordinary record ; and Sir Anchitel stated that in fifty- 

 three seasons of shooting he had never known landrail 

 so plentiful. At about the same time (September 8th) 

 three gunners in Glamorganshire shot seven brace of 

 these birds in a single day. 



Upon the same down walk in which I put up this 

 strong-flying landrail — not a quarter of an hour before 

 — a pair of peregrine falcons came overhead, passing so 

 close to me that if I had had a gun and the inclination, 

 I could have secured a very easy right and left. These 

 noble raptorial birds still breed, I am pleased to say, in 

 one or two parts of the Sussex cliffs, and are not in- 

 frequently to be seen during a walk along the high sea- 

 margin or over the downs. Occasionally their eyries are 

 so placed — they do not now nest in the same spot each 

 year — as to be nearly inaccessible ; so at least I gather 

 from the reports of certain coastguards in the vicinity. 

 But, more often than not, their nests are rifled each 

 season of the young birds. It is a pity that these 

 splendid creatures cannot be left alone for a few years, 

 to perpetuate their species and raise up a stronger 

 population among one of the scarcest birds of our 

 islands. Unfortunately there are always at hand the 

 greedy and too often utterly unprincipled collector of 

 eggs, or the hawking man, desirous of procuring 

 young falcons for his sport, to tempt those poor folk 

 who happen to know of these nests and have the pluck 

 to go over the cliff after them. I happen to know 

 something of one of these men. He gets about a 

 sovereign apiece for the young peregrines, and supplies 



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