BIRDS OF PREY. 15 



mentioned combine to prevent their extermination, or 

 ere this, in England at least, the whole family would 

 have been extinct. 



As forcibly illustrating this point, I copy from an 

 Inverness Courier, of May, 185 6. the following account ; 

 it is headed, "Extraordinary Destruction of "Vermin/' 

 and extraordinary indeed it is. The list has not been 

 made by a naturalist, and there is consequently .some 

 confusion as to the precise species meant ; but there is 

 nevertheless the plain fact, that on one estate, in four 

 years and a half, 818 individuals belonging to the order 

 under consideration were destroyed by the keepers. 

 But here is the account : 



" The Marquis of Ailsa has for some years encouraged 

 his gamekeepers in the destruction of vermin by paying 

 so much per head for those brought in. Every keeper 

 and assistant-keeper has a record of all the vermin 

 killed by him, and he receives payment every three 

 months accordingly, besides the regular and liberal 

 wages to which they are entitled for their services. All 

 kinds of vermin were thus brought low, even to the 

 jackdaw and common rat, which, we are informed, 

 caused great destruction to the eggs of pheasants and 

 partridges. The rat has become very common there, 

 and is found to burrow in rabbits' holes to such an 

 extent, that in ferreting rabbits, it sometimes happens 

 that a rat and a rabbit are shot right and left. Whole 

 broods of young pheasants and partridges have been 

 found dead, and partly eaten near rats' holes, and some- 

 times even young hares and rabbits. The owl, generally 

 supposed to be harmless, has been shot with young game 

 in its talons ; and hedgehogs have been found with large 

 accumulations of eggshells in their burrows, or in the 



