234 CREATURES OF PREY 



most beautiful and useful withal, seeing that he preys 

 solely on flying insects, chafers, and the like. The 

 stoat and the weasel are bracketed together; but 

 if the former be handed over justly to the executioner, 

 it is base ingratitude to forget the services of the latter, 

 which is by profession mouse- and vole-hunter. Gold- 

 en eagles may be reckoned out of danger. In many 

 deer forests they are now strictly preserved; for 

 although they do occasionally drive a hind or her calf 

 over a precipice, striking at her with their mighty 

 wings, there is plenty of provender for these noble 

 birds as long as ptarmigan and blue hares abound. 

 Moreover, they have not a stomach too proud for 

 carrion. The white-tailed sea-eagles have not fared 

 so well. They are more apt to fix an eyrie on a sea 

 cliff, open to all who have nerve and a rope, and this 

 species is far less common now than the golden eagle. 

 Perhaps the most notable features in the Glengarry list 

 are the jerfalcons, goshawks, and kites. The goshawk 

 bred in Strathspey when Colonel Thornton was there 

 in 1786, but the occurrence in North Britain of a single 

 specimen of any of these three birds of ravin is now 

 among the rarest of events. 



Vanishing land mammals formed the subject of a 

 recent paper in the Edinburgh Review (1898), the 

 writer indicating wild cats and polecats as the next 

 animals to follow bears, wolves, and wild swine to 

 extermination in Britain. I believe them to be in 

 less peril than they were before the extension of deer 

 forests. These great solitudes, especially those which 



