HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



57 



ing high up m the mountains, is beyond the flight 

 of the domestic bee." 



All this I can confirm, having travelled in the 

 parts of the hills vrhcre this wild bee abounds. 

 It is also found in the plains, everywhere in the 

 North-west Provinces, and has been described by 

 me in a paper on " Indian Hymenoptera," in the 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, in 

 June, 1869. 



Here, however, the cells are seen depending in 

 huge black masses on the lower sides of the larger 

 boughs of forest-trees, and the natives are in general 

 afraid to approach them. 



They are so wicked that I fear they could never 



be domesticated, although the attempt was once 



made with very partial success by General Hearsay. 



Should the readers of Science-Gossip wish it, I 



will send the report of that experiment, cut out 



from the Exeter paper, for their amusement and 



information. 



C. HoKNE, E.Z.S., late B. C. S. 



Newcome, January 29, 1872. 



CURIOUS HABITS OF SWALLOWS. 



I HAVE imbibed many of the tastes of Gilbert 

 White; but that which engrosses me most, 

 and which I may call my hobby, is the natural 

 history of the Swallow tribe. I have read that 

 swallows will " mob " and put to flight a kestrel 

 hawk. This I was rather sceptical of until lately, 

 when my doubts were removed by that most con- 

 vincing of proofs, — ocular demonstration. I had 

 gone to see an old castle in the neighbourhood, 

 which was built on the only hill for miles round, 

 and was therefore tolerably certain to be the haunt 

 of a pair or two of hawks. I accordingly kept my 

 eyes open, in the expectation of seeing one, and I 

 was soon rewarded by the appearance over the brow 

 of the hill of a bird, which, by its graceful poise 

 and the hovering motion of its wings, I knew to be 

 a kestrel. His active little enemies, the swallows, 

 a flock of whom were disporting themselves close 

 by, had been as quick to see him as I. These at 

 once advanced to meet the intruder, and, with the 

 utmost audacity, brushed past him in all directions, 

 one from one quarter and one from another, each 

 wheeling after it had swept by and returning to the 

 charge, while the hawk made futile dashes now and 

 again, but was always too late to do any damage to 

 his nimble little opponents. At last, tired of waging 

 an unequal war, and obliged to own iiimself con- 

 quered, he beat a hasty retreat. He was not, 

 however, allowed to get off so easily, but was fol- 

 lowed up by his victorious foes ; and the apparent 

 mystery of such little birds proving more than a 

 match for such a formidable-looking antagonist, 

 armed literally cap-a-pie as he was, was quite cleared 



up ; for as he made off", evidently at his best speed, 

 the swallows, with the utmost ease, when left at an 

 apparently hopeless distance behind, fetched him 

 up, then passed him (in what appeared to me most 

 dangerous proximity), wheeled round, met him on 

 their return journey, and then, taking another sharp 

 turn to the right-about, repassed him, and conti- 

 nued repeating these manffiuvres a dozen times or 

 more. The solution of the mystery lay in their 

 extraordinary powers of flight. The way in which 

 the swallows made straight for him, apparently bent 

 on a personal encounter, and then, when the kestrel 

 was reckoning on clutching them in his talons, 

 gliding away at a tangent, Avas, though no doubt 

 tantalizing to the hawk, none the less amusing 

 and interesting to me. To crown all, when the 

 others had left ofl" the chase, presumably not think- 

 ing it worth their while to pursue any further, it 

 was curious to watch one solitary individual carry 

 it on alone with such seemingly unrelenting vigour 

 that he seemed actuated by feelings of the direst 

 revenge. However that might be, the swallow cer- 

 tainly effectually prevented the discom.fited foe 

 from pausing in his enforced retreat. I watched 

 both until pursued and pursuer vanished from my 

 sight. I dare say the little swallow continued the 

 pursuit until he had wearied and exhausted the 

 hawk. On another occasion I witnessed a little 

 incident which has, to the best of my knowledge, 

 the merit of novelty ; and so I hope you will excuse 

 my telling it. I saw a hare running across a large 

 park by the wayside, and was looking about to see 

 what had started it, but could not imagine what it 

 could be, as neither man nor dog was in siglit. It 

 started again (for it had stopped and sat in a 

 listening attitude), and then I saw that the dis- 

 turbers were a flight of swallows, who were following 

 it up like a pack of hounds ; now one and now 

 another skimming past the hare's ears along the 

 ground, while the poor timid creature was putting 

 its best foot foremost ; but all to no purpose, for 

 its relentless tormentors seemed to take pleasure 

 in its fright, and to enjoy the sport of teasing it. I 

 followed the Kttle group until an undulation of the 

 park iiid it from ray view, and was greatly sur- 

 prised to see the dexterity with which the swallows 

 calculated their distance so as to impress the hare 

 with the idea they were flying straight at her, 

 and yet, wheu they were on the point of dashing 

 against her, took a sharp turn and swept off in a 

 curve, to renew the attack again the next moment. 

 I will close my epistle with an anecdote related by 

 the Rev. Philip Skelton, as having come under his 

 own observation, which seems to be appropriate, 

 and which, I believe, will be new to most, if not all, 

 the readers of this paper. I give it in his own 

 words : — " I have entertained a great affection and 

 some degree of esteem for sw^allows ever since I 

 saw a remarkable instance of their sense and 



