76 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
sufferers by the Bill rather than the excessive preservers, whom 
we have mainly to thank for the anti-game-law agitation that is 
becoming chronic; since the latter usually keep too large a staff of 
keepers to give idle hulking youths the chance of doing much 
mischief when loafing about with a rusty gun “looking for 
vermin.” 
For the present I fear I must count the readers of ‘The Zoolo- 
gist’ as some of the remaining enemies from whom | have, as a 
falconer, most to dread; but only, of course, as regards the 
destruction of the sources of supply on which a falconer depends. 
I need scarcely say that I believe a trained hawk, with bells and 
jesses, is sacred with any ornithologist who has the feelings of a 
gentleman, cela va sans dire; but | fear that few such will follow the 
rule which is a point of honour with most men who have kept hawks, 
never to fire at a wild hawk. If they only knew how much more 
pleasure is derivable from watching the habits of the living bird 
than is to be gained by contemplating its motionless distorted skin 
(I know of but one man in England, Mr. Hancock, who can stuff 
a hawk properly), I should not despair of their conversion. 
Here is an instance of what | mean. I notice in the October 
number of ‘The Zoologist’ an account of a male Hobby having 
been shot near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. That Hobby was the 
father of a nest that had been protected by myself and others for 
years. The old birds used almost daily to join my Peregrines 
when flying at the lure, and have often played and circled round 
me within twenty yards. The result of that unlucky shot was that 
the nest came to nothing last season, and | fear will not be used 
again. I only trust that a Hobby’s nest I know of in a certain 
eastern county may continue to escape a similar fate. Fortunately 
Hobbies, as a rule, fly so exceedingly high, often being only 
discernible by using a glass and following the upturned eye of a 
falcon,—an invaluable ally to a true naturalist,—that without a 
tame hawk to attract them down, it is rarely possible to murder 
these lovely birds. When in Central Florida, in 1870, I was much 
interested to notice how similar the flight of the Swallow-tailed 
Nauclerus, of which I saw scores, is to that of the Hobby, though 
even more beautiful. Like the Hobby, it appears to feed mainly 
on dragonflies. 
Ornithologists will buy Peregrines’ skins, notwithstanding the 
mischief occasioned by the demand for them. Last summer the 
