83 
glad if any member of the Society can mention any 
omission, that the list may be made as complete as 
possible. I regret that my calling has only enabled 
me to deal with the dead specimens, not to observe, 
as I would have liked, the character and habits of 
these noble birds in their wild native haunts. I think 
I should have been able to have given, if so privileged, 
sketches of their life in the forest or on the rocky 
cliff of such a nature as to attract our study and ad¬ 
miration. It has occasionally been my lot to watch 
with interest the habits of some cf the birds referred 
to, and I am glad to say that the more I have seen, 
the more I have admired them; and I cannot con¬ 
ceive the circumstances, which I have alluded to * 
already in this paper, which can justify the lessening, 
and even extinction, of their numbers within the last 
few years. The excessive preservation of game has 
altogether upset the true balance of nature, and 
brought about the destruction of our finest furred 
and feathered tribes. The question of the game-laws 
must and will be fought between the landlord and 
tenant on the relative value of ga^e and of certain 
cereal and green crops ; but is the naturalist, who 
desires the preservation of our native birds, not to be 
heard in the discussion ? Is he not to be allowed to 
protest against the enormous breeding and multipli¬ 
cation of exotic pheasants, and native patridges and 
grouse, at the expense of whole families of native 
hawks, buzzards, and eagles, and to the increase of the 
vermin of our fields, and the pests of our gardens and 
orchards ? 'What has led to the unparalleled number 
of wood pigeons, and the formation of so many asso¬ 
ciations for their destruction, but the removal of their 
natural enemies, the hawks, which, had they been 
left as of old would have saved many a bushel of 
grain to the farmer that has gone to feed the cushat 
and its more pampered congeners of the game list. 
This is a subject, however, for a paper itself, and 
should be energetically taken up by societies, such as 
ours, before it be too late (which in many cases I am 
afraid it is) to save Scotland’s noblest family of birds. 
A conversation followed Mr Lamb’s paper, in which 
it was stated that a single Peregrine Falcon was to be 
