3 68 Wild Life in Wales 



in animated nature, from the lowliest atom up to even man 

 himself, the weak must for ever be the lawful prey of the 

 strong. Nature is ignorant of suffering, and " cruelty " and 

 " pity " are terms which have been added to our vocabulary 

 without her cognisance. 



To change a train of unprofitable thought, I fell to 

 wondering what chance there was of poor " White-Wings " 

 receiving the credit he undoubtedly deserved, supposing he 

 escaped the falcon and got safely home. How much more 

 likely that he would be blamed for waste of time, and be, 

 perhaps, weeded from the loft as a laggard unfit for racing 

 purposes, and worthy only of figuring in the larder ! 

 Seriously, I wonder how many owners appreciate the risks 

 their birds sometimes have to run in a race, besides accom- 

 plishing the mere length of the journey, and how often 

 there may be a satisfactory explanation to a "bad time" 

 made, if only they could read it ? That a race, whose 

 course happens to be intersected by a falcon's haunts, is no 

 trifling matter, is vouched by the number of pigeons' legs, 

 bearing rings, often to be found in or about an eyrie. 

 There chance to be before me as I write two such rings, 

 marked respectively "R.O., 1901, 421," and " N.U.O.3.R., 

 370," two out of many picked up at different times, round 

 several eyries in this part of Wales. At one nest, down 

 near Vyrnwy, there were the remains of half a dozen pigeons, 

 one of them being a Stock Dove, one a Wood Pigeon, and 

 the remaining four tame birds, each with a ring round a 

 leg. The only other trace of victims at that nest was a 

 recently killed Meadow Pipit, a bird whose insignificant 

 size, one might have supposed, should have placed it 

 beneath the dignity of a Peregrine's notice. The reason 

 why so large a proportion of the pigeons, which fall victims 

 to falcons, are Homers, is that these are so frequently sent 

 upon a journey that involves their crossing peregrine 

 ground, while other tame varieties seldom wander in that 

 direction. A contributory cause may be that, whereas 

 Homers are often to be met with and captured near the nest, 

 other pigeons, killed further afield, mean a longer journey 

 with a heavy load, which, except under necessity, is dispensed 



