NATURE NOTES. 
1 68 
met the keeper of Lord Bo)-ne, who had just killed a kestrel. I said it was a 
shame, it did no harm. ‘Oh, sir,’ he replied, ‘it’s varmin, they kill the part- 
ridges.’ I said, ‘ I will give you five .shillings for every partridge feather you 
find in the bird’s crop.’ ^Ve opened the cock kestrel, and I counted 17S wire 
worms and not a feather ! ” The hawks, owls, and weasels on Lord Middleton’s 
estate, M'ollaton, were so kept down with pole traps, and otherwise, that as 
many as 1,500 rats killed per month were paid for 
“ Leaving the eagles, the spotted and the golden, as ratters only, we come to 
the kestrel (Falco tinmmculus), a great mouser, the goshawk, the sparrowhawk, 
the kite, the common buzzard (Buteo vulgaris), the rough-legged buzzard, the 
honey buzzard, the marsh harrier, the common harrier, the ash-coloured harrier, 
the eagle-owl (Bubo maximus), the scops-eared owl, the long-eared owd, the 
short-eared owl, the white or barn owl, the tawny owl, the snowy owl, the hawk 
owl, the little owl, Tengmalm’s owl {Noctua Teugmalmi), an occasional visitor, 
ash-coloured shrike, red-backed shrike, woodchat (Lanins ruftts), raven, carrion- 
crow, magpie, and Jay. Of these two last, Mr. J. E. Harting says they destroy 
quantities of young field mice, sj'stematically searching for the nests and turning 
them out. Great bustard, great plover, crane, common heron, common bittern, 
white stork, landrail, and water-rail, at least one of these birds is known to have 
devoured a shrew’-mouse (Morris). Here is a goodly list of thirty-five English 
mousing bird.s — go to the mouse-stricken districts and inquire how many of these 
mousing birds are known to be in existence? In all probability it will be found 
that man, knowing better than Nature, has improved them — or most of them — 
off the face of the earth. 
The following passages from the concluding portion of this 
interesting paper are all that the exigencies of space will allo-w 
us to give : — 
Sad to say, fair ladies — gentle dames — have not escaped scatheless from the 
searching examination before the Commons’ Committee ; it seems that the mines 
of Golconda, the pearl fisheries of Southern Seas, the Garden of Eden with its 
flowers and its fruits, never forgetting the foliage, would not satisfy their insatiate 
desire for objects to be used in personal adornment ; they have ravaged the 
beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air are being devastated for t'ne purpose- 
of obtaining heads, skins, and feathers for these sumptuary purposes. One scien- 
tific ornithologist was greatly overcome at a party on seeing a lady who “ had the 
audacity ” to appear in a tippet constructed with 500 robins’ skins ; he was only 
very slightly revived on learning that the deceased robins were of Spanish extrac- 
tion. Another ornithological witness observed with admirable precision and 
praiseworthy sentiment that he did not think the moral aspect of a lady’s bonnet 
was improved w hen a stuffed robin was perched on the top of it. . . . 
All birds have their uses to agriculturists and gardeners, but some may be too 
numerous : birds generally do more good than harm. ISIan, whenever he steps 
in, violates the law of natural co-ordination : there is a balance of nature, and 
that balance man upsets. He, with wayward fancy, breeds and plants whatever 
pleases him, and regards not the natural conditions of the plant or animal. In- 
sects swarm more and more because their checks do not increase in propor- 
tion, and that is entirely owing to the intervention of man. Insects are 
one of the greatest difficulties with which farmers have to contend : especially 
so where high cultivation prevails. There is not a tree that grows which is not 
subject to attacks of its ow n particular familiar insect — the oak alone has no less 
than fifty different invading insect persecutors. Birds in England, as elsewhere, are 
the chief means of destroying insects. Generally, in regard to birds and their food 
habits, there is crass ignorance. Foolish unreasonable unthinking “crusades” 
against birds are everywhere preached ; iron fences are multiplied ; hedges are 
stubbed up ; thatched roofs are no longer constructed ; in consequence, nesting 
opportunities grow less and less, and where is the wonder the most desirable- 
birds frequently disappear ? 
