1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 5.] Outer Hebrides and in Midlothian. 179 



highly amusing. Some witnesses told the Committee that 

 gamekeepers were ignorant and cruel ; others believed in a 

 state of things called ' the balance of nature,' with which 

 man should never interfere. Our old President, Mr Scot 

 Skirving, stated that " no bird on earth would be a nuisance 

 if man had not interfered with them." Then why, it may be 

 asked, should the wolf, the fox, and the eagle, or any other 

 bird or animal which had to be killed in the interests of 

 sheep, be interfered with ? Mr Angus, a Glasgow naturalist 

 of my acquaintance, said that " Nature, as a rule, if left to 

 herself, will fairly preserve the balance." But this would be 

 the balance that existed before Man appeared. That will 

 not do nowadays. "We want grouse instead of hoodie-crows 

 and hawks. A pair of peregrines, nesting on an inland grouse 

 moor, reduces its value by hundreds of pounds. It is in 

 spring, before grouse begin to nest, they do most damage, by 

 breaking up the pairs. As some years ago I gave a paper 

 at length on the peregrine, it would be superfluous to go over 

 the same ground again. I shall therefore direct attention to 

 the merlin. 



The merlin is a handsome little bird, but a notorious bird- 

 murderer. A partridge is the largest bird I have ever seen 

 it kill, but I know men who have witnessed it strike down a 

 grouse. Only once have I seen it tackle a partridge, and 

 that was the year before last. It is not, however, as a game- 

 preserver but as a bird -preserver that I would destroy it. 

 Fortunately it is not plentiful. Only once have I found its 

 nest. It was on a heathery bank sloping clown to a burn at 

 Dalnacardoch. The young were nearly fledged, and it was 

 a sad sight to see the remains of birds the parents had 

 brought to satisfy the hungry nestlings. Never can I forget 

 it. It was lucky for one of the parents I had not a gun, as 

 it flew close past me with a lark in its talons. I could 

 identify by the remains most of the victims, which included 

 sandpipers, thrushes, water-ouzels, swallows, snipe, stone-chats, 

 and — commonest of all — skylarks. "Will any one justify such 

 a murderer of our favourite birds ? 



The song of the skylark is so universally appreciated that 

 every one will concur with old Izaak Walton when he said : 

 " God ! what happiness must Thou have prepared for Thy 



