HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



247 



feet cubed ; that is, a box sixteen and a half feet long, 

 sixteen and a half feet wide, and sixteen and a half 

 feet in depth. What a holocaust offered up at the 

 shrine of agriculture ! and yet it is rejected. 



Again, were each bird to average two ounces, there 

 would be a weight of 1,663,031! pounds, or about 

 742JJ tons. Endeavour to imagine the number of 

 railway trucks they would fill. Farmers, Agri- 

 culturists, cannot you see the benefit which you 

 would gain if the country were rid of all this ? And 

 yet we wantonly destroy the means which Nature has 

 given you to obtain it. 



Suppose each victim were to eat — we will not be 

 extravagant — say 100 grains of corn (or its equivalent 

 from the produce of the land) in a season ; we will 

 ignore that which they destroy and do not eat ; they 

 would eat 1,330,425,000 grains. If 8000 grains fill 

 a pint measure, there would be 166,303^ pints of 

 grain, or about 65 loads. I leave it to others to esti- 

 mate what this is worth, as I think I have carried the 

 calculation far enough to show that it is altogether 

 to the detriment of farmers and agriculturists to 

 destroy hawks. In other manners I have demonstrated 

 how they are of value to keepers. Enlist the services 

 of hawks and they will reap benefit everywhere. 



One is often surprised when passing through plan- 

 tations in our country rambles, at seeing a sparrow, or 

 other similar bird fly past us, with great haste and 

 precipitation, the while uttering piteous, plaintive 

 cries. The astonishment, however, diminishes as we 

 see a dark form glide quickly by and turn round the 

 moss-grown rock past which the doomed bird flew. 

 The dark form is the much dreaded sparrowhawk ; 

 and no doubt were we to extend our walk a short 

 distance in the proper direction, we should disturb 

 the sylvan tyrant enjoying its sanguinary meal with 

 evident satisfaction. 



The female is a stronger, larger, and more cou- 

 rageous bird than her mate, and such birds as thrushes 

 (Merulida?) and even larger birds, as lapwings and 

 pigeons — find in her a very powerful foe. She will 

 not hesitate in attacking a plover and will bear it off 

 in her talons. The derivation of its local name of 

 "Pigeonhawk" needs no explanation. She is also 

 a swifter bird than the male, and may be seen at one 

 moment flying along a hedgerow, or by the edge of a 

 grove of trees, while immediately after we see her dart- 

 ing madly through the woods, quickly threading the 

 labyrinth of branches in quick chase after her fright- 

 ened prey, which, however, seldom escapes, so deftly 

 are the numerous twistings and turnings executed. I 

 have ofttimes wondered how this bird could proceed 

 at such a tremendous speed. In its passage it makes 

 a loud disturbance in the air, as of a loud wind, and 

 is lost to view behind the screen of some outjutting 

 rock, or is hid by a clump of dark green foliage. 



The sparrowhawk loves to feed off a fine plump 

 chicken, and will venture much to procure one. If a 

 farmyard be situate in the vicinity of its site of nidifi- 



cation, it does not scruple to pay its visits at intervals 

 — particularly in the grey dawn of morn, or in the 

 growing dusk of evening. It dashes over the inter- 

 vening hedge, sails across the yard on outspread 

 pinions, snatches up one of the heaviest chickens, 

 glides stealthily round the barn, and darts across the 

 adjacent meadows, away to some sequestered nook in 

 the woods, there at leisure to eat its stolen morsel. 

 The goodwife, on coming out to see the cause of all 

 the noisy cackling occasioned by the recent visit, only 

 sees the old white hen, clucking vociferously and col- 

 lecting all her young fry around her. If not checked 

 in the habit, the sparrowhawk will soon learn to 

 repeat its visits, until at last it has robbed the yard of 

 all its chickens. 



An old, grey-headed keeper recounted to me a 

 wonderful instance of this bird's daring. He was 

 feeding some young partridges, andhishat was actually 

 swept off his head by some passing object, at the same 

 time he heard a noise as of a body passing rapidly 

 through the air. The next thing he saw was one of 

 the young birds he was attending, being borne off by 

 an audacious female sparrowhawk. The partridges 

 were at the time not two yards distant from him. 



I have known a bird of this species attack a hen 

 sitting on eggs under a hedge, and to pluck a quantity 

 of feathers out of its tail and back. 



Like other European birds of prey, this bird has a 

 representative in Australia, the collared sparrowhawk 

 {Accipiter torquatns). We read that this bird is 

 similar in most respects to our own. Gould says it 

 " has all the characteristics of its European ally." In 

 North America it is represented by the American 

 sparrowhawk {Falco sparvcrius, Wils.) which, accord- 

 ing to Wilson, appears to possess all the inherent 

 wild courage and audacious manner of our own bird. 



( To be continued.) 



ON PALiEOCORYNE, AND THE DEVELOP- 

 MENT OF FENESTELLA. 



{Concluded from p. 229.] 



By George Robert Vine. 



I COME now to what are called the spiniferous 

 processes of Fenestella, the most peculiar of the 

 whole group. Several figures of species of these are 

 given by the Messrs. Young in their paper on Pabeo- 

 coryne, Vol. 30 of the "Quarterly Journal of the 

 Geological Society ;" some are in situ, others are 

 detached. The Messrs. Young give figures of dif- 

 ferent species of Fenestella, with the spiniferous 

 prolongations attached, and they also give figures of 

 specimens found in the shales of Hairmyres and 

 elsewhere in detached fragments. Dr. Duncan does 

 not take these processes into consideration in his 

 papers on Palceocoryne, and in the discussion which 

 followed the reading of Messrs. Young's paper both 

 Dr. Duncan and Mr. Jenkins failed to comprehend 



