4 
NATURE NOTES. 
wage a war of extermination against the most useful friends and 
allies man has to assist him in ridding his fields and gardens 
of vermin. 
In a Scotch local paper, in the spring of this year, there was 
a short paragraph to the effect that a game-keeper going to 
examine a trap set for hawks (probably one of the inhuman and 
cruel pole-traps) found a hawk taken, and, much to his surprise, 
saw that its mate had been feeding it ; no fewer than the remains 
of twenty-two mice being discovered lying around it. It is 
further alleged that the keeper slew that hawk. It has been 
calculated that a single nest of kestrels will in three months 
clear the land in their beat of ten thousand rats and mice. 
In 1893, in America, the Department of Agriculture issued a 
beautifully-illustrated volume for free distribution amongst their 
farm population, on The Hawks and Owls of the United States.* 
In this work the statements set forth are based on the examina- 
tion by scientific experts, of the contents of the stomachs 
of 2,700 hawks and owls, the result proving that, with very few 
exceptions, these rank amongst the best friends of man, and 
ought to be encouraged to abide near his home. But why 
multiply instances ? The literature of the subject is immense, 
and the evidence is overwhelming as to the valuable services 
rendered to man by his feathered friends. 
Far be it from us to inveigh against legitimate field sports, 
or the right of owners and occupiers to encourage a good head of 
game on their estates. j\Iay sport of the right sort long flourish 
in England, for it will be a sorry day when there is no game left to 
pursue. We must remember, however, that some things can be 
purchased too dearly, and that there are thousands of people — a 
vast majority we ma}' say — who are not sportsmen and who claim 
to have no skill with a gun, who yet derive the greatest pleasure 
in marking the appearance and flight of wild birds ; their delight 
is to watch the hovering kestrel soaring above the fields, or note 
in the gloaming the noiseless flight of the lynx-eyed owl. Why, 
we ask, are these sights to be denied us, and to the generation 
yet to come ? Why is residence in the country to be rendered 
tame and uninteresting to the many from the absence of once 
familiar birds, now so rarely seen, and shortly to be known only 
through books ? Hundreds amongst us are now asking these 
questions. 
Great Britain is fast being despoiled of her treasures, of her 
shy, wild creatures in field and woodland, of all her most useful, 
hard-working servants and fellow-workers in man’s interest, and 
this to satisfy the craze of high-stocked preservers, or to gratify 
the keeper’s vanity so that he may be able to show a great head 
of game to his employers of the annual shootings, and a goodly 
number of poor harmless victims gibbeted on the gable of his 
outhouse. 
[Noticed in Nature Notes, 1S94, p. 13.] 
