Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/99

Rh old birds of a Peregrine's nest on Loch Goil, which has existed for centuries and produced the finest falcons on record, were shot, arid the young ones left to perish miserably by starvation. One of my falconers visited the nest just too late to save them. I believe this mischief was done for "collecting" purposes, though Scotch gamekeepers, as such, are terrible destroyers of the noble bird that is really their best friend and ally. I will not here enter upon the question whether the spread of the grouse-disease is not purely and simply attributable to the ruthless destruction of Nature's surgeon, the Peregrine, by people who think themselves wiser than Nature; but it is a fact that there are Peregrine's eyries on the west coast, the only remains round which (excepting an occasional Rock Pigeon) are those of the gamekeeper's deadliest enemy, the Hooded Crow. Much good might be done if 'The Zoologist' and 'The Field' would decline to chronicle the slaughter of hawks and to pander to the vanity of their destroyers.

The senseless rage for "British-killed specimens" of all British birds is the curse alike of the falconer and of the true naturalist. Why not have our "British" specimens flying about round us, so that we may, as lovers of Nature, watch and study their habits, instead of doing our best to complete the extinction of any species particularly rare or particularly beautiful? Surely continental skins are all we collectors—for I am a collector as well as a falconer—need require; and the fashion once changed, the supply would very soon increase to meet the demand. 1 know of a small marsh in France where, at the proper season, you may see two hundred Hobbies in sight at once, hawking the large dragonflies, like so many Swallows.

But I am digressing. Ten years ago there were in England, to the best of my knowledge, but three professional falconers. An attempt was made, a little later, to start a Club and School of Falconry, but no professional falconer of credit was then available. The French "Champagne Hawking Club," of which M. Werlé was the head, had to be broken up, in great measure because they could not get on with their falconer, and could not supply his place. At the present time we have in England at least nine professional falconers, of whom four are in my own service, and available to be sent with hawks (of which I have about fifty) to any suitable localities where the sport would be appreciated. It need not be thought that these four were got