THE. CO.B.R Volume XV March-April, 191;3 Number THE NESTING O'F THE PRAIRIE FALCON IN SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY By WILLIAM LEON DAWSON WITH FIVE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR AND ONE DRAWING BY ALLAN BROOKS HE 'problem of evil' has always bothered the theologian, and he is bound .to wrestle with it, because inconsistency is intolerable in religious think- ?ng. But the bird-lover cannot be consistent. Within his little province he cannot "love good and hate evil", for to do so were to lose that joy rn variety which is his endless delight. Nature herself is inconsistent--fearfully so. In- deed, it is she who has set theology's problem. And if there be a "higher unity" or "religious synthesis" (and I believe there is) we as nature students have naught to do with it. If we are to find satisfaction in things as they are, if we are to enjoy nature, external nature, we must surrender ourselves to admiration of beak and talon no less than of wing and song. We may champion the cause of our specialty--Birds against the world, if you like, and death to cat, weasel, and serpent--but you cannot adjudicate as between magpie and chick, hawk and sparrow, raptor and raptee. Or if you do, you will only make yourself miserable, and wherefore ? All of which is artful preface to a declaration of love for that arch scamp and winged terror, the Prairie Falcon (Falco me?:icanus). Ruthless he is, and cruel as death; but ah, isn't he superb! To recall his image is to obtain release from imprisoning walls, glad exit from formal gardens and the chirping of spar- rows. To recall his scream is to set foot on the instant upon the bastion of some fortress of the wilderness. Away with your orange-bowered bungalows! Give me a sun-burned battlement in the hills of San Luis Obispo County. A plague on your dickey birds! Let me dare the displeasure of the noble falcon as he falls like a bolt from the avenging blue and shrieks out his awful rage.
