OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 389 
That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or 
leaves of plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks fre- 
quently feed on the green leaves of turnips, which give a peculiar 
flavour to their flesh that is to me very palatable: the flavour also 
of wild ducks and geese greatly depends on the nature of their 
food ; and their flesh frequently contracts a rank unpleasant taste 
from their having lately fed on strong marshy aquatic plants, as I 
suppose, 
That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive to 
the health of birds seems probable, for many people fat their 
ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small. 
MARKWICK. 
HEN-HARRIER. 
A neighbouring gentleman sprung a pheasant in a wheat stubble, 
and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of the gun, it was 
immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by the name of the 
hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung a 
second, and a third, in the same field, that got away in the same 
manner: the hawk hovering round him all the while that he was 
beating the field, conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in the 
stubble. Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey was 
rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot 
always seize their game when they please. We may farther observe, 
that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground where it might be 
able to make a stout resistance, since so large a fowl as a pheasant 
could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a hawk, when 
hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of cowering and 
squatting till they are almost trod on, which no doubt was intended 
as a mode of security ; though long rendered destructive to the 
whole race of gallina by the invention of nets and guns. —WHITE. 
Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey when urged 
on by hunger, I have seen several instances ; particularly, when 
shooting in the winter in company with two friends, a woodcock 
flew across us, closely pursued by a small hawk: we all three fired 
at the woodcock instead of the hawk, which, notwithstanding the 
report of three guns close by it, continued its pursuit of the wood- 
cock, struck it down, and carried it off, as we afterwards discovered. 
At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, we saw 
