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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and irregularly sinuous, it conveys the impression of 

 having suddenly lost its turgescence, and then it 

 rapidly flows back into the body. Numerous non- 

 contractible vacuoles exist ; but the multitude of 

 coloured corpuscles so interfered with the trans- 

 parency of the protoplasm, that it was impossible to 

 decide with certainty as to the presence of a nucleus. 

 In a variety in which the yellow corpuscles are replaced 

 by green, the whole, or part, of the surface is seen to 

 be in most cases covered with fine villi-like processes, 

 a condition very similar to one which has been 

 frequently described as occurring in Amoeba. To- 

 wards the centre of the protoplasm were numerous 

 pellets composed of foreign matter, evidently the 

 remains of nutriment derived from plants and in- 

 gested as in other amoeboid organisms." 



In the specimen I had, the rich yellow granules 

 not only filled the body, but were thinly scattered 

 through all the pseudopodia. 



Canterbury. J. Fuli.agaR. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL ESSAYS. 



No. II. — The Sparrowhawk {continued). 



By Tom Wm. Dealy. 



r PHE sparrowhawk is a great destroyer of bird-life. 

 X In fact, birds constitute its exclusive food. 

 Gamekeepers wrongly imagine that every bird which 

 is lost out of their woods has been eaten by this 

 hawk, which on these fallacious grounds is subjected 

 to a rigorous persecution, and, as a consequent result, 

 it becomes rare, and more rare every year. It is a 

 great error that this bird, as well as all others com- 

 prised under the head Raptores, were not included 

 in the Wild Birds Protection Act, because the birds 

 they kill to support themselves are necessarily the 

 weak and diseased ones in the flock, which cannot fly 

 away quickly enough to elude the deadly grasp of 

 the hawk ; and which, if left behind, would in all 

 likelihood sow more widely the germs of disease, and 

 thus lead to a far heavier mortality than the hawks 

 cause. Of course, my allusions now apply to game ; 

 for hawks are surely not begrudged any sparrows 

 they may destroy. In mediaeval ages both game and 

 hawks were to be found in profusion. Then the 

 sickly birds of a flock fell a prey to some hovering 

 hawk. Why should not the same proportion exist 

 now ? In a few years hence the sparrowhawk will 

 become like most of the genus — rare. It cannot but 

 give pain to the feeling of every true ornithologist, 

 to behold the rows of hawks which are nailed on the 

 gable end of the keeper's house. 



While spending my Midsummer vacations, I became 

 acquainted with a keeper who inherited with his title 

 all the inveterate hatred of his " caste " to hawks. I 

 talked with him, but he would not be convinced. In 

 the midst of a futile effort to wean him from his per- 

 verted opinion, I said, " Then bring me the next pair 



you shoot ; we will examine them, and you will then 

 see that I am right ! " He smiled superciliously as he 

 answered, "Well, I will, and I'll be bound to say, 

 you'll find 'em stuffed with young game." I made no 

 reply, because I saw that he was steeped in ignorance, 

 and that anything I said would be of no avail. 



He brought me a pair at noon next day, which he 

 had shot that morning. I opened them in his presence 

 that he might see the result himself. In the stomach 

 of the first — a matured male — were the partly digested 

 remains of a pigeon, species irrecognisable, but the 

 presence of a foot told it was a pigeon. I made no 

 comment, but proceeded to the stomach of the 

 second. I found the undigested parts of some small 

 bird, probably a robin or a linnet. Here was some- 

 thing for him ! He was rather less decided, but with 

 the most perfect nonchalance he extenuated his argu- 

 ment by attributing the absence of game from their 

 stomachs to the constant watch he exercised over his 

 young birds. However, I asked him to bring me the 

 next hawks he killed. I chanced to be with him 

 when he shot a pair — male and female. I again 

 dissected in his presence. He expressed his un- 

 bounded confidence that we should find game 

 in these, because he had lost a couple of young 

 pheasants from his covers that very morning. He was 

 mistaken. The male contained the several parts of a 

 sparrow not yet so sufficiently digested as to be past 

 recognition. I extracted both legs and claws quite 

 uninjured from the mass of food. From the female I 

 took the totally unrecognisable body of some large 

 bird ; which from fragmentary evidence we concluded 

 must be a thrush. He promised to think about it, 

 and examine for himself, and should he find his doubts 

 still further strengthened, he would refrain from 

 destroying them. 



It may probably be of interest to many to read the 

 following curious calculation, relative to the birds 

 destroyed by the sparrowhawk. 



Suppose there is one pair of sparrowhawks to every 

 twenty square miles of the British Isles — which is a 

 very moderate calculation far below the number. There 

 would then be no less than 6075 pairs of hawks, in all 

 12,150 birds. Again, suppose each of these to con- 

 sume three birds — sparrows we will say — per day. 

 They would destroy 36,450 sparrows per diem, 

 255,150 per week, and 13,304,250 per year of 365 

 days ! Let us suppose this immense number of birds 

 to be in a flock, flying. We will allow each bird a 

 square foot for freedom of movement. There would 

 then be a compact mass of flying birds nearly a mile 

 long and half a mile wide. What a mass of birds ! 

 And yet this is the amount which would be actu- 

 ally destroyed by the sparrowhawks of the United 

 Kingdom in one year if left unmolested. Again, if 

 the victims were placed in a cubical mass, say that 

 each bird is five inches long, two wide, and one in 

 depth, they would form a cubical mass which would 

 completely fill a box a little over sixteen and a half 



