214 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



future generations will bitterly regret the short-sighted policy 

 at present in fashion ! 



KESTREL. 



Falco tinnunculus, L. 



The sandstone precipices which stretch away westward from 

 the heights which rise above the town of Whitehaven are con- 

 stantly tenanted by several pairs of Kestrels, which appear to be 

 quite as much at home among the clefts of the sea cliffs as when 

 rearing their young in the wooded valleys of Lakeland. Public 

 opinion has begun to recognise that the injury which the Kestrel 

 inflicts on game preserves is exceedingly small. On the other 

 hand, the farmer gains enormously by the services which the 

 Kestrel renders in the destruction of field mice. 



OSPREY. 



Pandion haliaetus (L. ). 



That the Osprey was always rare in Lakeland, as a breeding 

 species at any rate, there can be no doubt ; but I think that any 

 one, who will take the pains to consider the chain of evidence 

 which I propose to supply with anything approaching to 

 judicial impartiality, should concur in the conclusions at which 

 I have at last arrived, after many years' close study of the 

 raptorial birds of this region. We owe our first information 

 regarding the bird to Francis Willughby, who stated that 'the 

 Sea-Eagle or osprey, Halisetus sive Ossifraga, which preys often 

 upon our rivers ; there is an aery of them in Whinfield-V&rk, 

 Westmorland, preserved carefully by the Countess of Pembroke.' 

 I can find no reference to this in the diary of the Countess, but 

 she was a woman of fine character, and just the sort of person 

 to take a pride in caring for the eyrie of a rare bird. Professor 

 Newton, whose unvarying kindness I gladly acknowledge, has 

 explained to me very fully his reason for identifying the 

 Osprey of Whinfield Park with the White-tailed or Sea 

 Eagle. But Professor Newton had no acquaintance with 

 the breeding-grounds of this species in Lakeland, nor had 



