BEARING AND I'llOTECTION. 



lo 



four-footed vermin, determiiieil to keep watcli Ini- the 

 aggressor, when, after some time, a moorhen ^v;ls seen 

 walking about near the eopse ; the keeper, supp(.)siiig it only 

 came to eat the young pheasants' lootl, did not slu.iot it, 

 until he saw the moorhen strike a young pheasant, which 

 it killed immediately and devonrei-l, except the leg and 

 wing Ijones. The remains agreed exactly with eight found 

 before." 



Lord Lilford, writing in "Dresser's Birds of Europe," 

 says: "I look upon the waterhen as an enemy to the game- 

 ]ireserver, not only from the qua.utity of piheasant food which 

 it devours, but from tlie fact that it will attack, kill, a.nd eat 

 young birds of all sorts. The hird is a great tavourite of 

 mine, and I should be sorry to encourage its destruction, Ijut 

 I am persuaded that it is a dangerous neighbour to young- 

 game birds"; and in his "Birds of Xorthamptonshu'e," he 

 adds, " We cannot acquit tliem of the chai'ge of a. very 

 pugnacious a.nd destructive tendency amongst tlieir own and 

 other species of birds, and they are most ceriainly bad neigh- 

 bours for young pheasants and partridges, as the\' not only 

 consume a good deal of the food intended for gaiia' birds, 

 but will now and then capture and devour' the birds them- 

 selves." 



The conniion kestrel, or windhover, so well-known as a 

 destroyer of field mice and I'ats, has also been accused of 

 occasionally attacking young jiheasants. Mr. J. H. Gnrney, 

 of Xorthrepps Hall, Norwich, writes as follows; — '' 31r. 

 iStevenson, in his ai'ticle on the kestrel in the ' Birds of 

 Norfolk,' remarks: 'That some kestrels carry oft young 

 partridges as ^vell as other small birds during the nesting 

 season, is too well anthenticated as a fact for even their 

 warmest advocates to gainsay.' For many years I have 

 endeavoured to collect reliable information on this point, and 

 I am convinced of the correctness <if j\Ir. Stevenson's opinion 

 above quoted; but there is this difference between tlie 

 sparrowhavvk and the kestrel in their habits of preying on 



