The Bird Book 



breast, sides and thighs. Unlike the Peregrine, it 

 makes a substantial nest, laying three or four eggs 

 of pale greenish-white, marked with rufous- 

 brown. 



Unfortunately the Buzzard is the subject of 

 much persecution, and is becoming everywhere 

 rarer, a fact which is the more to be deplored as 

 the persecution is based on a mistaken notion of 

 the bird's food, for like that of the Barn Owl, its 

 bill of fare consists almost entirely of small 

 vermin, and consequently the Buzzard ought to 

 be rigorously protected. 



Another inhabitant of the cliffs is the Raven : 

 with regard to Lundy I fear I ought to use the 

 past tense, for the birds there unfortunately par- 

 took of some poisoned mutton that had been pro- 

 vided for the benefit of the crows. I saw two 

 nests which were being repaired when the fatal 

 mistake occurred, and one was two or three feet 

 high, the result of several years' accumulation of 

 sticks and heather stalks. 



The Raven, possessing all the instincts of the 

 Crow, is as much more destructive as he is larger 

 and more powerful, and consequently he, too, is 

 the victim of persistent shooting and trapping, 

 yearly becoming rarer and rarer. Certainly in his 

 case there is such a tale of misdeeds as may be 

 held to justify the persecution, but it would be a 

 source of grief to all bird-lovers if so fine a bird 

 were to be exterminated. He still holds out in 

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