HAWKING 231 



and his destestation of its extermination in 

 England. He says: "For who that has ever 

 looked at nature in other regions, where this per- 

 petual hideous war of extermination against all 

 noble feathered life is not carried on, does not 

 miss the great soaring bird in the scene — eagle, or 

 vulture, or buzzard, or kite, or harrier — floating at 

 ease on broad vans, or rising heavenwards in vast 

 and ever vaster circles'? That is the one object in 

 nature which has the effect of widening the pros- 

 pect just as if the spectator had himself been mi- 

 raculously raised to a greater altitude, while at 

 the same time the blue dome of the sky appears 

 to be lifted to an immeasurable height above 

 him. The soaring figure reveals to sight and 

 mind the immensity and glory of the visible 

 world. Without it the blue sky can never seem 

 sublime. But the great soaring bird is nowhere 

 in our lonely sky, and missing it we remember the 

 reason of its absence and realize what the modern 

 craze for the artificially reared pheasant has cost 

 us." 



Far off in the distant sky a great bird is soar- 

 ing on nearly motionless wings. Again he is 



