5200 Birds. 



round number, all of which I likewise dissected, I have very seldom, 

 very seldom indeed, found anything but the remains of the smaller 

 quadrupeds, insects (chiefly beetles) and caterpillars in their stomachs ; 

 yet this poor bird is persecuted here with as much vigour and perti- 

 nacity as any of the most destructive kinds. It may be that they all, 

 at times, meddle with feathered flesh, even in the shape of some of 

 the game species ; but I should say that that was very seldom, and 

 even then under very peculiar circumstances. Prejudice, however, is 

 a strange and stubborn thing, and not easily rooted out ; so that our 

 keepers, whose ignorance teaches them no better, must and will have 

 their own way. I do not mention these things as anything new, but 

 merely to throw in my humble mite in favour of the bird, in the hope 

 of being, with others, the happy and instrumental means of at least 

 saving it in some measure, if not altogether, from the unwarranted 

 persecution to which it is in general subject. A pair of kestrels built 

 for several years in a dove-cot belonging to an acquaintance of mine, 

 and seemed to live on the most friendly terms with the pigeons, never 

 seeking to harm any of them, young or old. In the old castle of 

 Boyne, too, a few miles from this place, a pair generally breed every 

 season amongst jackdaws and pigeons ; and they, also, appear to live 

 on the very best of terms with their neighbours. 



The Goshawk (Falco palumbarius). If you were to ask our 

 keepers and gunners generally about this bird, they would tell you 

 that they meet with it pretty often ; but if you were to come to closer 

 quarters with them, and demand a sight of these so-called goshawks, 

 you would find that in nineteen cases out of twenty they would 

 prove to be nothing more nor less than female sparrowhawks or some 

 species of buzzard. The goshawk, however, that is the real goshawk, 

 has been seen, and even obtained, within our boundaries ; but it is 

 very rare. One was procured at or near Tomintoul, in 1836 ; another 

 at Ellintore, a few years later ; and a third shot from the roof of a 

 house in Macduff, in 1840 ; these being, so far as I am aware, all that 

 have been obtained here. 



The Kite {Falco milvus), said to be once plentiful here, is now but 

 very seldom seen. Like the good old times, it may be said to have 

 gone, — gone, and no one knows whither. 



The Buzzard (Falco buteo). Occasionally met with. 



The Roughlegged Buzzard (Falco lagopus). More frequent than 

 the last. One in my own collection was killed on the hill of Durn, 

 about fourteen years ago ; and one, now in the Banff Museum, was 

 shot at Farglen, the seat of Sir Robert Abercromby, in 1854. The 



