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modus vivendi , it is fancied, can be found for any predatory birds and 
pheasants. Consequently the former are made over to the tender mercies of 
the gamekeeper. With gun and trap he speedily banishes the bulk of them 
from the fauna of the district ; and the naturalist, who would gladly be 
satisfied with less game could the lives of the raptorial birds be spared to lend 
an interest to his walks, finds the old Roman method of making peace carried 
out around him to the letter. The covers and woodlands become more or less 
of a bird-wilderness. Until keepers become better naturalists, and know 
something of the fauna of England and of the characteristics of native birds, 
much cruelty will continue to be exercised upon many of the most beautiful 
and, comparatively speaking, innocent frequenters of the plantation. Where 
can a more beautiful bird be found in our land than the jay, as the sunshine 
falls upon his deep-blue wing-feathers in the heart of a spreading larch ? 
When the harmless dor-hawk (or fern owl) is ruthlessly shot by some over- 
zealous keeper as being a hawk, and therefore a depredator of the deepest 
dye, a naturalist may well wish that a little of the natural history of the district 
were taught among the other sciences of the village schoolroom, and that a 
national school of practical forestry existed in England. To return to the 
gibbet. The hawks and owls have a habit of flying down openings in the 
woods (just as the woodcocks do in the evening when going to their feeding 
grounds), and the keeper noticing this erects a pole-trap, as it is called, at the 
end of the “ ride,” by the open field. This consists of a pole about ten feet 
high, with a steel trap placed on the top, while cross-pieces are nailed to the 
pole to enable the keeper to get up and down with ease. More often, 
however, the keeper finds a mass of quivering feathers which represents 
an owl, or a prostrate and fierce sparrow-hawk, ready with beak and talons 
to resist its inevitable doom. For jays the keeper makes up a bogus nest 
containing four or five imitation thrush eggs. These are made of wood, 
painted to match real eggs, and are fastened down with slender wire, while 
just outside, cunningly concealed under sprays, is a steel gin occupying the 
very spot where a robber of the nest would naturally alight. Too often these 
contrivances prove fatal to the poor jay, and it is carried off to swing on the 
gibbet. The peregrine falcon is only found in the wood which we describe in 
the winter. This noble falcon retires to inaccessible cliffs for the most part in 
spring, where it may bring up its brood in safety. The traveller by the 
Highland railway doubtless remembers passing at the head of Loch Garry 
several foxes nailed to a shed close to the line, and swinging in the breeze. 
No more direful crime could socially be committed in this neighbourhood than 
shooting a fox. The indignation of Milton with regard to books would feebly 
express the feelings of everyone here, high and low, were such an outrage done 
either to the feelings of foxes or of foxhunters—“ as good almost kill a man as 
kill a good fox.” So the fox is here allowed to eat rabbits or pheasants at its 
will till winter brings rettibution in the shape of the hounds. The consequence 
is that a year or two ago, when their cubs were ravenous, these foxes took to 
killing lambs in the fields around, and the unusual spectacle in England was 
seen of large fires kept burning all night to scare them away, while slumber 
was driven from the eyelids of those who lived near by the incessant blowing 
of tin trumpets and firing of guns charged with powder only. Yet for the 
sacred cause of fox-hunting these inconveniences were cheerfully borne. 
With what pleasure should we watch the result of one of these fine old 
ancestral haunts of game and wild creatures falling into the hands of a 
naturalist, who would give up preserving game, but pay special attention to 
the breeding and increase of the various wild beasts and birds of the country ! 
Provided that none of his neighbours were extreme preservers of game, there 
could be no reason why he should not indulge his hobby, and preserve hawks 
and owls instead of pheasants. Then the frequent sight of the various wild 
birds, the marked differences in character of their flight, their cries and 
screams in all the joyous freedom of nature, the behaviour and curious traits 
of the smaller quadrupeds—weasels, polecats, and the like—would provide 
