HOBBY AND WOUNDED PARTRIDGE. 113 



country near the coast; being here a summer 

 visitor, and occasionally taking up his quarters in 

 the nest of a carrion crow. Yet even in these his 

 favourite haunts, he must be considered scarce, 

 and you will rarely discover his deca^dng form 

 among the rows of defunct hawks which garnish 

 the gable end of the keeper's cottage — a sort of 

 ornithological register, which would appear to in- 

 dicate, with tolerable accuracy, the prevalence or 

 scarcity of any species of raptorial bird in its im- 

 mediate neighbourhood. 



The courage and address of this hawk are re- 

 markable. When shooting wdth a friend a few 

 years ago, during the early part of September, we 

 observed a hobby pursuing a partridge, which, 

 having been wounded in the spine, was then in 

 the act of " towering.'' The little fellow proved 

 himself to be a true falcon, by the rapidity with 

 which he rose above his quarry in rapid circles, 

 " climbing to the mountee," as our ancestors 

 termed this manoeuvre, with all the ease of a pe- 

 regrine. Unfortunately at this juncture the par- 

 tridge became suddenly lifeless — as is the case 

 with all towering birds — and fell to the ground, 

 while the hobby, apparently disdaining to accept 

 a victim which he had not obtained by his own 

 exertions, scudded away after a fresh covey which 

 just then rose from the farther end of an adjoining 



