266 Wild Life in Wales 



sheep farmer, by helping to reduce their numbers. It is, 

 likewise, one of the few feathered foes of the Fox Moth 

 (Bombyx rubi\ another common insect in most moorland 

 districts. I do not think that it touches the hairy larvae of 

 this moth in autumn ; but after hibernation, when the full 

 fed caterpillars come out, to wander about for a short time 

 before spinning up, just when the Curlews have returned to 

 the moors, they seem to be more palatable, and then they 

 have no more deadly foe. The pupae are even more sought 

 after than the larvae, and are torn from their silken ham- 

 mocks, and devoured with avidity. Rooks, also, are very 

 partial to the chrysalides of B. rubi. 



Another of the " unconsidered trifles " that, occasionally 

 at least, go to build up the Curlew's tissues, is the eggs of 

 other birds ; a fact well known amongst some of the more 

 observant Highland keepers, but not, 1 believe, generally 

 recognised elsewhere. For many years I had suspected such 

 occasional divergence from the straight path of meum et tuum^ 

 before I could actually bring myself to believe in the guilt 

 of the Curlew. I had more than once seen it leave the 

 neighbourhood of a rifled Pipit's nest, under suspicious 

 circumstances, and had frequently known it caught in a 

 trap baited with an egg for crows, but had always been 

 willing, and indeed anxious, to give it the benefit of any 

 doubt. When, however, I began to find that it was quite 

 commonly poisoned at an egg, in which strychnine had been 

 put, it could no longer be pleaded that it was curiosity only 

 that led it into the egg-baited gins. Since then I have had 

 no doubt that it is accountable for the destruction of at least 

 a few small birds' nests upon the moors. In connection 

 with the egg poisoning, I cannot resist telling a story 

 against a Perthshire keeper of my acquaintance, especially 

 as it is now so many years ago since it happened, that even 

 should it chance to meet the eyes of any of the interested 

 parties, it can hardly do any harm. At the time, the very 

 suspicion, by poor " Laddie's " bereaved master, of foul- 

 play, would at least " hae provokit bluidshed " ! 



The way I came to hear the story (which was true, I 

 believe, in every detail) was that M'Cawmill and I had 



