BREEDING HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK. 85 



However, whether Aceipiter nisus is more addicted to 

 appropriating nests than to building entirely de novo, or 

 whether the exact converse holds good, is a matter of less 

 moment with me just now than the soupeon of acrimony which 

 seems on occasions to creep into present day ornithological 

 criticisms. Personally, I do not object to hostile criticism so 

 long as it is unaccompanied by misrepresentation. I can 

 assure Mr. Macpherson that nothing was further from my 

 mind than to boast of having taken hundreds of Sparrow- 

 hawks' eggs ; my sole and only motive in mentioning the fact 

 was to show that I was not presuming to discuss an interest- 

 ing topic in public print without some little qualification. 

 How far I merit obloquy, as his comment unmistakably 

 implies, for taking, as opportunity offered, my fill of the eggs 

 of a species which is notoriously baneful to shooting interests 

 and against which gamekeepers with one accord wage a war of 

 extermination at all seasons, I will not stop to consider in 

 detail. I only know that on many an occasion my plundering 

 of a nest has sufficed to save a Sparrow-hawk's life, whereas, 

 had I not been present to plead for mercy and climb to the 

 nest, the brooding bird would have been ruthlessly shot on the 

 spot, and the beautiful eggs left uncared for where they lay. 

 Such interposition profited the owners of the various nests 

 equally with myself, seeing that they were allowed to escape 

 with their lives and subsequently laid eggs elsewhere for my 

 appropriation. 



Even Lord Lilford, than whom our feathered friends know no 

 more staunch, more enlightened, or more illustrious champion, 

 advocates, unless I mistake not, in one or other of his delight- 

 ful publications, the keeping of these lawless little freebooters 

 within due bounds by destroying their eggs rather than by 

 slaying the old birds. I conceive it a pity that Mr. Macpherson 

 did not confine his remarks to the main question without 

 indulging in a kind of veiled and very inapposite stricture at 

 my expense. Had the eggs plundered been those of almost 

 any other species, I should have felt little justified in attempt- 

 ing to defend my action. 



In conclusion, it must be obvious that my paper was 

 written in the most perfect good faith, and whether or not my 



