258 



KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



" ' I suspected that their nest was under 

 the ash tree, and in this I was not deceived ; 

 for I soon found that they brought out four 

 young ones, and introduced them into the 

 wheat ricks ; and so greatly had they thin- 

 ned the destructive mice, that, When the 

 ricks were carried to the thrashing floor, 

 scarcely a mouse was to be found. After 

 some months, the young weasels disap- 

 peared, and the old pair were left undis- 

 puted masters of the domain. This favorite 

 pair continued for three years, each year 

 producing a young brood, which disappeared 

 the following spring. At length, one of my 

 favorite mousers was caught in a rat-trap, 

 and the other soon afterwards disappeared.' " 

 We could not help feeling regret, in com- 

 mon, we are sure, with the benevolent 

 writer, at the tragical end of the useful little 

 Weasel. May we hope, that others may 

 consider we have made good the point with 

 which we commenced these remarks on the 

 weasel; and may they accord this little 

 creature some measure of protection ! 



Having now noticed the various quad" 

 rupeds to which our limits permitted us to 

 allude, we will now proceed to the cases of 

 several birds, and for these, we trust, 

 we shall also secure a favorable ver- 

 dict from our readers, We have selected 

 a few examples only, but the number might 

 be largely multiplied did we expect an} 1 - in- 

 creased good from such a course. 



Before taking the birds, seriatim, we wish, 

 more particularly as the breeding season is 

 now approaching, to enter our protest 

 against the extremely cruel, and utterly 

 useless wholesale destruction of sea-gulls 

 and other water birds, which annualiy takes 

 place at most of their breeding stations, by 

 the gunners who resort to them merely for 

 the sake of seeing how many unfortunate 

 victims they can register to their guns in a 

 given time ! No good end is answered by 

 thus shooting the birds, no scientific ad- 

 vantage is obtained ; but extensive and alto- 

 gether unnecessary misery is inflicted both 

 on the old maimed birds, and on the young 

 ones that are thus left to perish from hunger 

 in the nests. We cannot conceive a more heart- 

 less amusement, and we trust our readers will, 

 one and all, set their faces resolutely against 

 such wanton cruelty in future. These ob- 

 servations will equally apply to the cases of 

 the swallows, who however have an addi- 

 tional claim upon our kindness and forbear- 

 ance, on the ground that they destroy 

 countless myriads of insects, which would 

 otherwise make our houses and fields unin- 

 habitable by man or beast. We do not wish to 

 dwell on this subject, but we trust our readers 

 will determine, each in his own sphere, to 

 do what he can in the cause of humanity. 



Entering on the birds then, the first in 

 order whose cause we are desirous of 

 advocating, as being greatly and unneces- 

 sarily persecuted, is — 

 The Kestril, or Windhover (Falco tin- 

 nunculus). 



This very pretty and most useful bird, 

 although very extensively persecuted at all 

 seasons of the year, has nevertheless some 

 few friends ; and, as we find the amusing 

 and eloquent pen of Charles Waterton 

 has been wielded in its defence, we cannot 

 do better than give the following extract 

 from one of his interesting essays ; more 

 especially, as he was we believe one of the 

 first, if not the very first, who took up the 

 cause of this and several other unnecessarily 

 persecuted creatures. He has, moreover, 

 always enforced his precept by example. 

 " Did the nurseryman," remarks Mr. Water- 

 ton, " the farmer, and the country gentle- 

 man, know the -value of the windhover's 

 services, they would vie with each other in 

 offering him a safe retreat. He may be said 

 to live almost entirely on mice ; and mice, you 

 know, are not the friends of man ; for they 

 bring desolation to the bee-hive, destruction 

 to the pea-bed, and spoliation to the corn- 

 stack. Add to this, they are extremely in- 

 jurious to the planter of trees. The year 

 1815 was memorable, in this part of the 

 county of York, for swarms of field-mice, 

 exceeding all belief,. Some eight years be- 

 fore this, I had planted two acres of 

 ground with oaks and larches, in alternate 

 rows. Scarcely any of the oaks put forth 

 their buds in the spring of 1816, and on my 

 examining them, in order to learn the cause of 

 their failure, I found the bark entirely 

 gnawed away under the grass, quite close to 

 the earth ; whilst the grass itself, in all di- 

 rections, was literally honeycombed with 

 holes, which the mice had made. I prize 

 the services of the windhover hawk, which are 

 manifest by the quantity of mice which they 

 destroy ; and I do all in my power to put 

 this pretty bird on a good footing with the 

 gamekeepers and sportsmen of our neigh- 

 borhood. Were this bird properly pro- 

 tected, it would repay our kindness with in- 

 terest ; and we should then have the wind- 

 hover by da3^, and the owl by night, to thin 

 the swarms of mice which OA r errun the land." 

 C. Waterton, in Loudon, vol. ix, p. 461. 

 {To he Continued.) 



NATURALISATION OF FOREIGN BIRDS. 



BY HENRY TAYLOR, ESQ. 



The lovers op birds owe you, Mr. 

 Editor, a deep debt of gratitude for the 

 variety of valuable information contained in 

 the pages of your Journal, or scattered 



