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and as a consequence is easily trapped. It, however, 

 takes grouse, as I have found their legs and feet at the 

 nest. How it seizes them I have never been able to 

 understand, but imagine it must snatch them off the nest, 

 as never to my knowledge has a buzzard been seen in 

 pursuit of grouse on the wing. Judging from the cast- 

 ings of the young birds at the nest, the buzzard preys 

 largely upon rabbits, leverets, mice, moles, beetles, and 

 caterpillars. As mentioned, however, I have seen the 

 remains of grouse at their eyries. At the same time, the 

 buzzard is not very destructive to winged game, so that, 

 with the kite and hen-harrier, which are both now rare, 

 I do not urge their extermination. 



The peregrine falcon is a very difficult bird to deal 

 with, nesting generally in inaccessible precipices out of 

 reach of the keeper. As he scorns to be attracted by 

 any bait unless killed by himself, it is exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to get rid of this most dreaded enemy of grouse. I 

 know of places where peregrines breed, and even if one 

 is shot off her eggs, the male immediately starts in search 

 of another mate. I have known five hen birds killed 

 out of the same nest in succession, so mates must be plen- 

 tiful somewhere. When they are allowed to rear their 

 young, a heavy toll is taken from the number of grouse 

 on the surrounding moor. The fastest cock grouse 

 that ever flew has no more chance before the peregrine 

 than a rat has before a terrier in an open field. Only 

 those who have concealed themselves near the eyrie 

 of this bird, and with a telescope watched the number 



