GROUND, STOCK, AND POACHING 229 



depredations of foxes, crows, jackdaws, eagles, ravens, 

 stoats, weasels, hawks of all kinds, and even occasion- 

 ally wild cats, or cats which have become wild and 

 taken to the rocks and ravines. I would never kill 

 an eagle, but rather keep so grand a bird on the best 

 my moor provided, nor would I, personally, shoot a 

 peregrine; but the other species I have named, besides 

 being less picturesque, are less rare, and must be 

 ' attended to.' The anti-game-law party in Scotland 

 lately started the cry that the destruction of hawks, 

 owls &C. had subjected them to a plague of field 

 voles (the common little brown mouse so often seen 

 on the hills), and that these creatures were devouring 

 their pastures, and impoverishing their stock ; but a 

 perusal of the evidence before the Royal Commission 

 on this subject will, I think, convince any reasonable 

 person that the appearance of these animals in large 

 numbers in particular localities has been of spasmodic 

 recurrence from time immemorial, and that when 

 they appear hawks and owls usually appear also in 

 increased numbers to keep them in check. They seem 

 to leave certain districts, or die off, as erratically and 

 as rapidly as they appear, and the agitators failed 

 altogether to connect their appearance with the de- 

 struction of vermin by gamekeepers. 



i'oaching, dishonesty, and disloyalty, encouraged 



