396 Wild Life in Wales 



we brought home with us for further examination. Like 

 the others, he was in high condition, having almost com- 

 pleted his moult to summer plumage, and showing very 

 conspicuous scarlet eye-combs. The glossy surface of the 

 feathers at this season is in marked contrast to the winter 

 or autumn plumage, in which state Grouse are more usually 

 handled, and is often so bright as to recall the burnishing 

 on the spring dress of a cock pheasant, or some of the other 

 gallinaceous birds. In probably nine cases out of ten, it 

 will be found to be a male Grouse that falls a victim to a 

 falcon in spring, he being then so much more prone to be 

 found upon the wing than the female, and the latter 

 amongst the heather being quite out of harm's way, so far 

 as a Peregrine is concerned. It is more than likely, more- 

 over, that the greater proportion of the birds killed belong 

 to the class of " old bachelors," of which most keepers are 

 generally only too glad to be rid before nesting time comes 

 on. It is the roving tendency of these unpaired birds that 

 makes their presence undesirable on a moor ; but that same 

 wandering habit also exposes them to the falcon's attack, 

 and it would seem therefore to follow that there may be 

 worse things on a moor than a Peregrine, even though she 

 may have developed a taste for Grouse. This is a point 

 that may be worth the consideration of those owners of 

 grouse moors, and their servants, who still continue to 

 destroy falcons, and may at the same time serve as a solace 

 to the more kindly people who have discontinued the 

 practice, and may be in doubt as to the wisdom of their 

 action when they pick up a dead grouse or two beneath 

 the falcon's crag. 



I will just add that the photograph which fittingly brings 

 these chapters to a close is of a portion of the keeper's rail 

 at Glan Rafon. It carried at the time some 50 head of 

 u vermin," including a buzzard, half a dozen ravens, 1 6 

 crows, 6 female sparrow-hawks, 2 magpies, a jackdaw, 2 

 kestrels, and about 20 stoats and weasels. Sometimes it 

 was even more heavily laden, its presiding genius being 

 one of the keenest trappers in the neighbourhood ; but he 

 has since left to fill a more important post on the Earl of 



