DESCRIPTION OK A HAWK. 197 



lu tliis Hawk all the claws are a pale horny white throughout, without n 

 Streak or tint of any colour whatever, and about half the length of those of 

 any of the five Hawks to which I have alluded, and scai-cely incurvated at all. 



Nothing but a possibility of this Hawk being a new species could justify 

 the minuteness and consequent extension of this paper. I here appear 

 simply as endeavouring to be faithful in description ; which, after careful 

 examination, is confirmed in all its details by Mr. Denny, the Curator of the 

 Philosophical Hall in Leeds, who has figured the bird from the specimen in 

 my possession. And I fonvard my communication to The Naturalist, 

 specially, for three reasons : the first, because I think it is the duty of every 

 man to endeavour to aid his neighbour; the second, because The Naturalist 

 is so ably conducted as to promote the science of Zoology generally, and so 

 judiciously conducted as to induce the worldng as well as the idle man to 

 add to his own and others' happiness; and the third reason is, that I enter- 

 tain the highest regard and esteem for you as a friend. 



EFFECTS OF THE SEVEKE WEATHER ON THE HIRUNDINID^C 



AT WOBURN, BEDFORDSHIRE, AND THE 



NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



BY O, B. CLARKE, ESQ. 



Many years have elapsed since such a cold, variable, and t)ackward spring 

 as this has occurred. As an instance let us take the few preceding days on 

 which the casualty I am about to relate occurred, which has been very 

 beautifully described by W. Kidd, Esq., in p. 157 of the present vol.; yet 

 my account does not quite agree with his. On the 26tli and 27th of May we 

 had two beautiful summer days ; on Monday we had a cold change ; Tuesday 

 and Wednesday, very cold and windy, the dust, enough to blind one, flying 

 about in all directions, wind shifting from north to north-east ; Thursday a 

 hitter cold day, wind still in the same quarter, very stormy, accompanied with 

 rain, snoio, and hail, the thermometer at 43 ; it was on this day, and succeed- 

 ing night, that the above inoffensive creatures perished by scores, I may say 

 by hundreds, in this neighbourhood. Wherever I have made inquiries the 

 answer has been the same, viz ; — On Friday morning, go where you will, you 

 may see them scattered about, a most melancholy sight, where the poor 

 creatures fell from exhaustion, cold, and wet, not being able to get any food, 

 there they died ; or in some instances in the town, the little fellows huddled 

 together, for the sake of the little warmth they might impart to each other, 

 on some projecting ledge of a house, until, completely worn out, they would 

 fall and die ; the superintendent at our Gas Works showed me six swallows 

 that sat on the top of the pipe which conducts the gas from the ovens to the 

 purifiers, where it was so hot that he could not bear his hand ; they being 



