SPARROW HAWK. 35;) 



He then took the remaining portion and fixed it to the ground, 

 placing around it three or four rat-traps, in one of which he 

 was caught by the leg. He told me that in his neighbourhood 

 he had been observed to make sad havoc amongst the partridges 

 and pigeons." 



When a Sparrow Hawk suddenly appears in a place where 

 there are many small birds, they usually betake themselves to 

 the nearest wood or thicket, where after a little they give vent 

 to their feelings in loud cries. Sometimes it is pursued by 

 birds of various species, which, although incapable of seriously 

 molesting it, continue to hover round it, uttering cries expres- 

 sive of their alarm and hatred. I have seen one flying rapidly 

 off in the evening with a bird in its talons, followed at full 

 speed by a Wagtail, uttering hurried cries all the while. In 

 this case it is probable that the hawk had carried off its mate 

 or one of its young. I think, however, that the birds on which 

 it usually preys do not gather about it or pursue it unless some 

 of their relatives or companions have been swept away by it. 

 Often, however, a flock of Swallows follow a Sparrow Hawk a 

 long while, hovering at a considerable distance, and keeping up 

 an incessant chatter. The prevalent idea on this subject is, that 

 small birds being the natural prey of hawks, they have an in- 

 stinctive antipathy to their destroyers, and when one of the 

 latter is observed, they call to each other, and collecting in a 

 band, assume a sufficient degree of courage to impel them to 

 pursue and harass him, knowing that their number secures 

 them against an attack, as in his perplexity he cannot fix upon 

 an individual. To this it may reasonably be objected that, hav- 

 ing no power, even when united in bands, to oppose a hawk, 

 these birds ought naturally to conceal themselves from his 

 view, in order to ensure their safety. After attending to this 

 subject for some time, and observing that in most cases, the 

 hawk when pursued by small birds had one of them in his 

 talons, and was thus so encumbered as to be incapable of mo- 

 lesting them, I am still of the same opinion as when I offered 

 the following solution of this question: — " How does a bird, 

 which under ordinary circumstances manifests extreme terror 

 at the sight of another, under other circumstances muster suf- 



