Very few people know about them, but as a member of the league
for protecting rare birds that information would be at his disposal. I
came down in the train with him, and I noticed that a bulky volume of
Dresser's 'Birds of Europe' was one of the requisites that he had packed
in his travelling-kit. It was the volume dealing with short-winged hawks
and buzzards."
Clovis believed that if a lie was worth telling it was worth telling
well.
"This is appalling," said Mrs. Olston; "my husband would never forgive me
if anything happened to those birds. They've been seen about the woods
for the last year or two, but this is the first time they've nested. As
you say, they are almost the only pair known to be breeding in the whole
of Great Britain; and now their nest is going to be harried by a guest
staying under my roof. I must do something to stop it. Do you think if
I appealed to him--"
Clovis laughed.
"There is a story going about, which I fancy is true in most of its
details, of something that happened not long ago somewhere on the coast
of the Sea of Marmora, in which our friend had a hand. A Syrian
nightjar, or some such bird, was known to be breeding in the olive
gardens of a rich Armenian, who for some reason or other wouldn't allow
Lanner to go in and take the eggs, though he offered cash down for the
permission. The Armenian was found beaten nearly to death a day or two
later, and his fences levelled. It was assumed to be a case of Mussulman
aggression, and noted as such in all the Consular reports, but the eggs
are in the Lanner collection.
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