358 vVCCIPlTER NISUS. 



bickering in the honeysuckle. Balancing himself on his perch, 

 with half-o])cned wings, and levelling his neck for flight, down 

 he rushes. The yelloping instantly ceases ; then what a rust- 

 ling of the leaves of the neighbouring bushes, followed by a 

 death-yell ! and now you see the bold robber bearing away his 

 bloody victim to some quiet corner to devour it at leisure. I 

 have seen Pipits, Larks, Wagtails, and Swallows evade the. 

 swoop of this fell destroyer by dexterously darting to one side, 

 rising above the pursuer, again darting aside, and rising as he 

 descends, and so on, gradually diminishing the distance from 

 the earth, until the persecuted bird finds a shelter, or the 

 tyrant gives up the pursuit in disgust. What a treat it is to 

 behold the elegant evolutions performed by both parties ! 



" This hawk preys chiefly on small birds, partridges, leverets, 

 and young rabbits. Should the gamekeeper disturb it when 

 feasting, he sets a trap near the remains, and is often successful 

 in capturing it. It is sometimes caught in traps baited with 

 dead rabbits. It is very fond of Washing. Here it prefers the 

 branches of the old oak in the wood for building its shallow 

 nest of slender twigs, in which it deposits from three to live 

 eggs. The young I have seen fledged so late as the SOth of July, 

 but the usual time is about the end of Jinie. 



" One evening in June 1838, on my way home from fishing, 

 I walked through a wood near Ruchlaw mill. Observing a num- 

 ber of rabbits gambolling in a green glade, I stood to see their 

 sports, when in a short time a Sparrow Hawk swept down from 

 a neighbouring ash, and fixed his claws into an old one, which 

 rushed shrieking to the brink of a precipice overhanging AVhit- 

 tingham Water. Running forward I arrived in time to see 

 both saved from certain death, by being caught by a briar bush 

 growing on a little natural platform. Still the hawk kept his 

 hold, till I shouted, on which he flew off." 



The Sparrow Hawk is dispersed over all parts of Britain, 

 but is more plentiful in the cultivated districts than in the 

 heathy or mountainous portions of the country. In the Outer 

 Hebrides, where there are no trees, it breeds in rocks ; but in 

 wooded districts, it either builds its nest in a tree, or, more 

 frequently, takes possession of the deserted nest of a Crow. 



