The Balance of Nature . 
162 
[April, 
hatched pheasants and partridges are not bad eating as a 
change.” The gamekeepers, who have “ nearly all at some 
time or another shot him in the acSt ” of bird-killing, have 
not impossibly confounded him with the sparrowhawk. 
Waterton, who had many kestrels in his park, observed that 
the small birds never seemed alarmed at the approach of 
the kestrel, whilst there was great and general consternation 
if a sparrowhawk came in sight. Nor did an examination 
of their nests reveal feathers or other proofs that birds had 
been brought for the food of the young. Still Waterton 
admits, on the evidence of his friend Mr. Bury, that the 
kestrel “ will occasionally make a meal on the smaller 
birds.” Granting this fad:, we yet maintain that as one of 
the best destroyers of mice his services far outweigh his de- 
merits, and sound policy demands his preservation. 
The owl, too, receives a like kind of doubtful acquittal, 
and is at any rate pronounced “ the very best mouse- 
destroyer we have,” — which is certainly true. 
In the raven we can see no redeeming features. Not 
merely does he swallow young birds whole, without enquiring 
whether they are on the game list or not, but he attacks 
young lambs and pecks out their eyes, and, as he performs 
no services which can in the smallest degree compensate for 
this mischief, he cannot be allowed to exist in a cultivated 
country. The carrion crow, the Royston crow, the magpie, 
and the jay have a better account to render : they destroy 
millions of noxious inserts, and if slightly injurious during 
the hatching season they are eminently serviceable during 
the rest of the year. The magpie visits the backs of sheep 
and oxen, and makes a careful search for vermin. The jay 
is decidedly the least carnivorous of the group, a large part 
of his diet consisting of peas, beans, and fruit in summer 
and autumn, and of acorns in winter. These depredations 
often expose him to death at the hands of gardeners and 
farmers, but they form no part of Mr. Morant’s charges. 
We should be half inclined to say — “ Defend your gardens 
against the jay by netting, and let him live.” Concerning 
the Royston crow Mr. Morant says — “ We must own we 
once opened the crops of some fully-fledged young hoodies, 
and found them full of inserts, principally beetles. But 
then their ancestors had eaten eggs for so many years in 
that country that there were no birds left to lay any within 
three miles of their nest.” We wonder on what evidence 
this assertion is founded. 
The polecat, the stoat, and the weasel come next under 
examination, and \ve fear we must approve the sentence 
