NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 117 
account which he gave of the Ornithology of St. Kilda, accom- 
panied by a coloured plate of the supposed new Wren, and it is 
an uncoloured copy of that plate (although the author has 
omitted to say so), which forms the frontispiece to the present 
volume. Since then other specimens of the bird have been 
received from St. Kilda, and from an examination of these it is 
now generally admitted by ornithologists that Mr. Dresser is 
probably right in his opinion (‘ The Ibis,’ 1886, p. 43), that after 
all Troglodytes hirtensis is not specifically distinct; an opinion 
lately echoed by Mr. Saunders in his ‘ Illustrated Manual of 
British Birds.’ As none of these facts have been alluded to by 
Mr. Dixon in the volume now under review, it can hardly be said 
that his chapter on this bird places its history in a true light. 
It is curious what misconception exists in the minds of most 
modern writers on birds whenever they take occasion to refer to 
Falconry. They almost invariably allude to it as a thing of the 
past, and (notwithstanding the information afforded by the 
“Falconry” columns of ‘The Field’), are apparently quite 
unaware of the fact that hundreds of Partridges and Grouse are 
killed in this country every game season with trained Peregrines; 
that numbers of Larks are taken with Merlins; and Blackbirds 
and Thrushes with Sparrowhawks; and that a dozen owners of 
Goshawks might be named, who annually take scores of rabbits 
and fewer hares with their trained birds. 
Mr. Dixon apparently is one of those who imagine that the 
art of Falconry is no longer practised in this country, judging 
by his remarks (p. 26), and he is equally in error when asserting 
(p. 28), that ‘“‘ Peregrines prey upon the weakly, the weary, and 
the unwary.” Had he seen as many Grouse and Partridges 
killed by Peregrines as the writer of this notice, he would never 
have penned the lines above quoted. We are well aware that 
much has been written in an attempt to prove that Falcons and 
Hawks are “nature’s police,” that by killing the weakly game 
birds (because they are presumably the easiest to catch) they 
render infinite service to man by leaving only the healthiest and 
strongest birds to breed. This is a very pretty theory, but 
unfortunately for its supporters it is not true. It is undoubtedly 
the fact, that certain birds of prey, like the Harriers and Owls 
which fly low, and quarter their ground closely, carry off numbers 
of defenceless young birds, and old ones too occasionally, when 
