278 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



Raven and buzzard, goshawk, kite, harrier-hawks, 

 and peregrine. Besides these, a score of species 

 of less size were also considered detrimental to 

 the interests of the noble poultry-killer. Nor is 

 this all. Incidentally the keepers, the men with 

 guns in their hands who patrol the woods, have 

 become the suppliers to the dealer and private 

 collectors of every rare and beautiful bird they can 

 find and kill. 



But I wish now to write only of the large species 

 named above. They are not very large — they might 

 almost be described as small compared with many 

 species in other lands — but they were the largest known 

 throughout the greatest portion of England ; they were 

 birds that haunt in woods, and, above all, they were 

 soaring birds. Seen on high in placid flight, circling 

 and ascending, with the sunlight falling through the 

 translucent feathers of their broad wings and tail, they 

 looked large indeed — large as eagles and cranes. They 

 were a feature in the landscape which made it seem 

 vaster and the clouds higher and the sky immeasurably 

 farther away. They were something more : the sight 

 of them and the sound of their shrill reiterated cries 

 completed and intensified the effect of Nature's wild- 

 ness and majesty. 



It is the loss of these soaring species which spoils 

 these great woods for me, for I am always sadly con- 

 scious of it : miles on miles of wood, millions of ancient 

 noble trees, a haunt of little dicky birds and tame 

 pheasants bred and fed for the autumn shoot. Also 



