i88 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



all; he has the credit, how far deserved I cannot 

 say, of killing and eating the young of the fierce 

 peregrine falcon, if the nest is left undefended when 

 the young falcons are in their down state. From 

 personal observation, I do not believe that he is 

 quite capable of this. If there is a trap baited 

 for any large, rapacious bird, and the cob is in the 

 vicinity, he is nearly certain to get into it. 



Marine vulture though he is styled, I have a great 

 admiration for this bold bird, one of the greatest 

 ornaments of the waters and the shores. Like all 

 other creatures, he fills the place he was intended for 

 to perfection being one of the police that nature has 

 stationed in their appointed beats all over the earth 

 and the waters. He is a restless wanderer, for ever 

 beating to and fro, when not asleep. I have watched 

 him on the ocean, along the shores, and in the 

 marshes, flapping up arms of the sea inland, and 

 around the mighty three-deckers of past days. I 

 have seen him also calmly flying up a tidal river 

 with houses on both sides of it. See him where 

 you will, he is never put out or flustered ; there 

 is no rush or hurry about him. A bird of mark, 

 he is something to look at and to remember. They 



