WHERE HAWKS FLOURISH.
It was pleasant to discover in the West of England that in one respect the old " balance of nature " has been restored. Though among mammals especially the so-called vermin have suffered cruelly—hare, fox, otter, stoat and weasel— from trappers, the great birds are now as numerous as they used to be, perhaps more numerous. This increase, noticed chiefly on the Coast, extends far inland. Not a few buzzards are seen in Herefordshire, and the ravens nest in fair numbers in the same lovely county. The peregrines, which had been reduced at one time to a pair or two, are now quite common. I saw more within a week or two recently than I had seen for ten years ; and as for ravens, you could watch the young birds from the windows of an hotel on the north-west coast
of Cornwall. At Newquay you may observe the feeding of the baby herring gull from a cliff top populous with visitors ; and at Ilfracombe a raven's nest has been one of the popular sights.
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