68 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



the fields on the borders of thick hedges and cop- 

 pices. With hard weather and prolonged frost 

 the sexes separate still more widely, the female 

 remaining in the interior, and the male following 

 to the coast the swarms of small birds of all 

 kinds which then congreo^ate in the fields near 

 the shore. In the severe winter of 1S38-9, when 

 I passed much time in the pursuit of wild-fowl at 

 Pagham, I noticed one morning as many as twenty 

 male sparrowhawks hanging on the skirts of a 

 miscellaneous army of little birds, which extended, 

 with slight interruption, for some miles, between 

 Aldwick and Selsey, and harassing their outposts 

 ]ike a hostile party of Cossacks. There was not a 

 female sparrowhawk among them, and these males 

 were known to the people on the coast and its 

 neighbourhood by the name of stone-falcons. 



The following is a striking instance of the blind 

 impetuosity of this bird when in pursuit of its 

 prey. In May, 1844, I received from Burton 

 Park an adult male sparrowhawk in full breeding 

 plumage, which had killed itself, or rather met its 

 death, in a singular manner. The gardener was 

 watering plants in the greenhouse, the door being 

 open, when a blackbird dashed in suddenly, taking 

 refuge between his legs, and at the same moment 

 the glass roof above his head was broken with a 

 loud crash, and a hawk fell dead at his feet. The 



