22 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



of unburied dead or dying human beings found by 

 the carrion birds, while it knows little or nothing of 

 injury suffered from birds of prey. If eagles made it 

 a common practice of carrying off human babies, as 

 stories are told of them now and then, we should regard 

 these " royal birds " with hatred and loathing, rather 

 than admiration. Indeed, from a scientific point of 

 view, the fact that man admires and likes the eagle 

 is the best proof that these stories of baby-snatching 

 are seldom if ever true. No species in nature and 

 man is not yet supernatural can like and admire 

 its natural enemy. As for the smaller birds of prey, 

 the hawks and falcons, our admiration of their fire 

 and dash has been enhanced by ancient comradeship 

 in the sport of falconry. 



THE MERLIN'S LIMITATIONS. 



On the east coast, in winter, where migrant mer- 

 lins haunt, you may sometimes see wild flights as 

 exciting and prolonged as any that this little falcon 

 gives you when tamed and trained to fly at skylarks 

 in early autumn. But though the wild merlin on 

 passage is naturally a bolder, stronger flier than the 

 bird reared from the nest in captivity, it rarely 

 attempts, because the attempt would scarcely ever 

 succeed, to catch a scared skylark that has started 

 aloft. Beautiful to witness are these "ringing" 

 flights when the trained merlin is fairly pitted against 

 the new-fledged skylark ; but the lark's full wing- 

 power in winter makes a stern chase skyward almost 

 hopeless. Even a wagtail or a meadow-pipit birds 

 which often attract the merlin's pursuit by flinging 



