SPORT IN BUTE. 193 



buoyant owls which live exclusively on mice. The last 

 summer I fished Loch Baa, a pair of these birds were rearing 

 their young close to " the Salmon Point." Every time I 

 fished the point, the hawks flew round screaming, while I 

 assured my oarsman (a poacher from Salen) that they did no 

 harm to game, and much good to the farmer. The man could 

 scarcely conceal a sneer, until one afternoon the screamer 

 dashed out of the wood, within a few yards of our heads, with 

 a large field-mouse dangling in its claws. " I see'd its tail 

 an' legs as plain as the boat," he repeated, again and 

 again. 



I knew of four kestrels' nests on my Bute shootings in 

 1861, most picturesquely placed on lonely points of rock, 

 but did not permit any of them to be molested, with the 

 exception of a young one, which my boys reared along with a 

 sparrow-hawk of the same age. They never quarrelled, got into 

 fine feather about the end of July, and seemed quite contented 

 in their enormous cage. The kestrel once escaped, and flew 

 about the old trees and tower in a restless unhappy manner, 

 and seemed delighted when it found the way back to captivity 

 not unlike those inhabitants of the city suburb, who have 

 learned to prefer their close den to the wildest freedom. 



I am sorry to bring a charge of poaching against the re- 

 spectable and industrious rook ; but in dry seasons, when the 

 parched ground refuses the usual supply of slugs and worms, 

 these birds are very destructive among the eggs of the pheasant 

 or partridge preserve. The charge of devouring young birds 

 has never, as far as my research goes, been brought home to 

 rooks, although members of the same order, but partners in a 

 smaller firm, have been convicted of kidnapping and murder- 

 ing pheasants a few days old. Two pairs of jackdaws, after a 

 long drought, were shot in the act of picking up pheasants 

 from the coops as soon as they were hatched, to satisfy the 

 craving of their voracious nestlings. I am convinced, how- 

 ever, that these evil deeds are exceptional, and that almost 



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