385 Winged Vermin. 



of our few remaining hawks, are not predatory amongst 

 game. If they would be content to hold to their old and 

 mistaken opinion and leave the birds alone, it would not 

 matter; but in spite of everything shown them to the 

 contrary, they persist in ruthlessly destroying them without 

 rhyme or reason. The only way to deal with the matter 

 is for the owners of the preserves to take it into their own 

 hands and make the unwarrantable killing of owls and 

 hawks a cause for dismissal. Although there are several 

 hawks and one or two owls whose habits, if strictly 

 inquired into, would lead to no pleasant disclosures, there 

 are only two or three whose modes of existence warrant 

 their destruction by the game-preserver. The greater part 

 of the hawks and owls which still bestow their company 

 upon us are now becoming so scarce that, if we want to 

 continue to reckon them among our British birds, their 

 preservation will be as necessary as that of the pheasant 

 and our other game, and it is therefore needful to advise 

 gamekeepers and others to kill only those whose numbers 

 and destructiveness would otherwise prove a hindrance to 

 the rearing of game. 



The hawks which are really destructive may be 

 numbered on the ringers of one hand, and when we count 

 up all the British hawks, the necessity of a wholesale 

 killing of all the members of the tribe is far from 

 apparent. I shall, therefore, only refer to those which 

 really exert their predacity in a sufficiently destructive 

 manner amongst game to render their presence in any 

 number obnoxious. 



S-parrowhawk. This is probably one of the most 

 numerous and destructive of our hawks, and coupled with its 

 mischievous character, it has a most shy and wary nature, 

 so that, although the proofs of its misdeeds are invariably 

 but too apparent, the bird itself is frequently unobserved. 



c c 



