146 OnXITHOLOGICAL EAMBLES. 



intersected the thickest parts of the cover, I had 

 ample time for conjecture as to the species of the 

 promised prize. I should have concluded that 

 it was a female of one of the harriers, were it 

 not that these birds, sufficiently rare in all locali- 

 ties, had never, to my knowledge, been observed 

 in this thickly-wooded portion of the weald, and 

 that even in the more open and moorland parts 

 of the country, where they occasionally occur, their 

 depredations are of a less determined character 

 than those ascribed by the keeper to the bird in 

 question; but just as I had almost succeeded in 

 per.suading myself into the belief that it might, 

 after all, turn out to be a real buzzard, the voice 

 of my companion interrupted my reflections, and 

 looking up, I saw him pointing exultingly to — 

 a large female sparrowhawk, which hung from 

 the extremity of a branch, one of the slender 

 shoots of which had been twisted in Jack-Ketch 

 fashion round the neck of the bird. 



I need hardly add that my attempts to rectify 

 the error under which he laboured were lost upon 

 this uncompromising exterminator of winged ver- 

 min, or that I failed to convince him that his 

 " buzzard-hawk" was in reality the lawful partner 

 of what he contemptuously termed the "little chap 

 with the red breast.'' To do him justice, however, 

 he was a zealous, though unenlightened member 



