their liberty, and used to love to accompany their master when he went to the hill, swooping down upon the birds he shot with great rapidity and unerring accuracy of aim. The kite, like the sea eagle, has almost been improved away' from our midst. I for one am heartily sorry that it has become rare. Those that I studied in Spain appeared to live chiefly on offal and small reptiles. But I do not believe the kite is constant to any one diet. In this district the common buzzard feeds upon field voles, because they abound and other prey is scarce. In another district, not twenty miles away from the first, the buzzards live chiefly upon wall lizards. If you open them, you find their stomachs crammed with these reptiles, which you would have fancied were too swift and agile to be captured by so clumsy a round-winged hawk as the common buzzard. It is the same with the kite. In Germany I have seen it trying to annex tiny partridges. In some parts of Scotland, grouse found an inveterate foe in the beautiful, high-circling glede or red kite. The term 'glede,' by the way, is often applied to the buzzard and hen-harrier. But let that pass. The late Mr. E. T. Booth was a singularly impartial and truth-loving investigator. He studied the habits of the kite to good purpose in a remote part of Perthshire. The result of

his researches proved that the kites under observation fed upon squirrels and rabbits, as well as upon peewits, and the young of curlew, wild duck, and pigeons; but he decided that grouse 'seemed to be their favourite food.' One kite's nest, in particular, was visited on several occasions, and each time 'the young bird had a fresh-killed grouse on the nest.' Further, he goes on to state that he counted the remains of over thirty grouse under the branches of a large fir. 'Some were only bleached and weather-beaten skeletons, and probably had lain for many months.' He considered that all the birds in question had been destroyed by a single pair of kites at the beginning of the season. I fancy that the offenders would have preferred more ignoble prey if it had been forthcoming. Sorry should I be to do any injury to a British kite. But our personal feelings must not be allowed to overpower our better judgment, and the preservation of rapacious birds, however desirable from a scientific or philosophical standpoint, possesses some distinct drawbacks for game-preservers. The male hen-harrier is a lovely bird in his delicate blue garb, and I know no more beautiful sight in nature than a hen-harrier quartering a moor, as I have seen it do in North Uist and other places. But there cannot be any doubt that both

male and female harriers are both extremely destructive to grouse, and relentless in their pursuit. I do not justify the extermination which is so rapidly overtaking this bird, in consequence of its nesting on the ground, and being easily trapped beside its young, for it is a devoted parent. I do not go so far as to say that it feeds principally on grouse; but I have no doubt that the presence of this charming harrier is highly inimical to the interests of both grouse and partridges. The peregrine falcon kills a good many grouse on some inland moors, but a long study of its habits has convinced me that it feeds on many other birds in a larger degree. I believe it prefers puffins and other sea fowl to grouse. Of course I admit also that this falcon kills grouse at every period of the year. Every sportsman knows the truth of this remark. It is not as well known that the peregrine feeds also on small birds. Young 'red' falcons are very destructive to young grouse, but they are not very discriminating, and live largely on thrushes and other small birds. I once crept within a yard or two of a beautiful peregrine, as he was perching on a crag of rock a thousand feet above the boiling waters of the Minch. He was so busily engaged in dissecting a fresh-killed skylark that he never observed my stealthy approach to his stronghold. It has often been said

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