462 Habits of the Windhover Hawk. 



I once made the experiment to try if a windhover would 

 take possession of a nest newly built ; and, in order to prepare 

 the way, I singled out the nest of a carrion crow. As soon as 

 the crow had laid her third egg, I ascended the tree, and 

 robbed the nest. In less than a week after this, a pair of 

 windhovers took to it ; and they reared a brood of young in 

 its soft and woolly hollow. 



The windhover is a social bird, and, unlike most other 

 hawks, it seems fond of taking up its abode near the haunts of 

 men. What heartfelt pleasure I often experience in watch- 

 ing the evolutions of this handsome little falcon ! and with 

 what content I see the crow and the magpie forming their own 

 nests, as I know that, on the return of another spring, these 

 very nests will afford shelter to the windhover. Were I to 

 allow the crow and the magpie to be persecuted, there would 

 be no chance for the windhover to rear its progeny here ; for 

 Nature has not taught this bird the art of making its nest in a 

 tree. How astonishing, and how diversified, are the habits of 

 birds ! The windhover is never known to make use of a nest 

 until it has been abandoned for good and all by the rightful 

 owner ; whilst, on the contrary, the cuckoo lays her egg in one 

 of which the original framer still retains possession. 



The windhover usually lays five eggs, and one of them 

 sometimes proves addle. This bird is seen to the greatest ad- 

 vantage during the time that it is occupied in rearing its 

 young ; at that period, nothing throughout the whole range 

 of ornithological economy can surpass the elegance of its aerial 

 evolutions. 



Perhaps it is not generally known, that the windhover is a 

 migratory bird ; but, whether the greater part of these hawks 

 leave England in the autumn, or merely retire from their 

 breeding-place to some other part of our country, more con- 

 genial to their habits, is a problem which remains yet to be 

 solved. For my own part, I am of opinion, that a very large 

 proportion of those which are bred in England leave it in the 

 autumn, to join the vast flights of hawks which are seen to 

 pass periodically over the Mediterranean sea, on their way to 

 Africa. 



Last summer I visited twenty-four nests in my park, all with 

 the windhover's eggs in them. The old birds and their young 

 tarried here till the departure of the swallow, and then they 

 dissappeared. During the winter, there is scarcely a wind- 

 hover to be found. Sometimes a pair or so, makes its ap- 

 pearance, but does not remain long. When February has set 

 in, more of the windhovers are seen ; and about the middle of 

 the month their numbers have much increased. They may 



