28 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
and others, instantly muster at the summons and join in 
hot pursuit. 
I have noticed on these occasions that linnets and 
chaffinches usually follow in steady chase, while now and 
then one more bold than his fellows will dart forward 
and make a momentary attack on the hawk, and then 
rejoin his companions; but the swallows, with much 
greater power of wing, fly wildly to and fro, now darting 
_ across his path, then shooting ahead, and again return- 
ing, all the time uttering cries of fear and hostility. The 
sparrowhawk seems generally to hold all his noisy perse- 
cutors in supreme contempt, excepting that now and 
then his patience becomes exhausted, and with a fierce 
sally he sacrifices one of them to his resentment. In 
this it shows more spirit than the kestrel, which I have 
often observed to be apparently annoyea, and more 
anxious to escape such boisterous recognition than to 
become the aggressor. 
I have often remarked how quickly the poultry in my 
yard have caught sight of a kestrel or a sparrowhawk 
on the wing. The watchful cock is generally the first 
to utter his warning cry, which is immediately repeated 
by the hens, and all, with head turned sideways, scan 
the course of the intruder, those who have chickens in- 
stantly calling them ogether for protection until the 
danger is past. 
We hear from all parts of the country of the large 
amount of damage done to the crops by woodpigeons. 
In some districts of England and Scotland meetings 
have been held to devise means for their destruction, 
for they have enormously increased of late years. We 
cannot wonder at this, for their natural enemies are un- 
relentingly extirpated, and the sparrowhawk is especially 
