12 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



His subsequent and careful investigations have more 

 than carried out these first examinations. 



The whole of our ten species of owls, most of them rare 

 and all scarcer than thej should be, deserve protection. 

 "No other bird exceeds them . in service to man, silent 

 unobtrusive service, and we have very few birds in Britain 

 to compare with them in beauty of plumage." 



The " gamekeeper's tree," or the old-fashioned barn-door, 

 are always shocking sights to an ornithologist who appre- 

 ciates the labours of the feathered kind, and recognizes their 

 multitudinous usefulnesses, but they never touch his feelings 

 so deeply with their array of nailed up victims as when 

 he notices the owls there, and knows how unjustly Ascalaphos 

 and Nyctimene have died. I look forward to a better time 

 for both the hawks of the day and those of the night. 



The sportsman avenges on birds of prey of all kind his 

 real or fancied injuries by the severe judgment of the gun, 

 but where falcons are needed for training to the delightful 

 sport, not yet quite extinct in many parts of the globe, 

 resource must needs be had to other and ingenious methods. 

 A bait of some sort, either a living or a dead bird, is always 

 essential. The hawk, unlike many of his weaker brethren, 

 is not to be allured by his vanity, credulity, amativeness, or 

 simple gullibility ; it is hunger alone that will bring him 

 from the clouds to the netsman's toils. 



The mode of capturing falcons amongst the Arabs of 

 Syria, for instance^ is as follows. Supposing the Arab to 

 have noted some particular place in which hawks abound, 

 such as ruins or rocky places, he provides himself with 

 a pigeon or partridge, or any bird that they may be fond of. 

 Fastened round its body is a very fine net, and when the 

 sportsman has placed his decoy in some convenient spot, it 

 is not long before its struggles attract the attention of some 

 wandering bird of prey which swoops down upon it and 

 is* entangled in the net. The captor, who has been hiding 



