102 THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



bass notes deepened into one loud chorus of caw ! caw ! which 

 was joined by the shrill klee ! Idee ! Idee ! of a sparrow-hawk. 

 Running to the place, I found about a score of crows upon one 

 female sparrow-hawk. They were tearing and flapping at her, 

 she on her back defending herself with her talons and beak ; 

 but the powerful bills of her assailants would soon have ended 

 the strife had I not rushed in the nick of time to save her. The 

 crows were so busy that I was amongst them before they 

 heeded me. I knocked several down, kicked others aside, while 

 the hawk lay on her back panting, with outstretched legs and 

 claws and open beak. I knocked them all away, their little 

 black eyes glistening with rage, both at me and the hawk, as, 

 with another hoarse caw of defiance, they flew reluctantly 

 away. Curiously, she never tried to bite or clutch me, 

 but allowed me to lift her up, as if glad to be saved from 

 her natural foes, quite heedless whether I was an enemy 

 or not — instinctively feeling I had saved her life. Thinking 

 her nest was near, and the likely cause of the fray, I looked up 

 and there it was on an easily-climbed Scotch fir tree. I put the 

 hawk in my vest, buttoned my jacket, and climbed up. I found 

 five very deep-sitten eggs (as afterwards proved). I knew it 

 was no use leaving the hawk or her eggs to the mercies of her 

 deadly enemies, so I brought them home, thinking she might 

 hatch them. I made a nest inside a toolhouse in the garden, 

 placed her on the eggs, and retired. She allowed me, as if she 

 understood what I meant. I gave her food and kept her two 

 days ; but she neither sat on her eggs nor tasted food. So, 

 pitying the poor bird, I took her in my hand (still quite tame) 

 and let her away to live, love, fight, and kill again in her natural 

 element. She flew, like a homer pigeon, high in the air, as if 

 to see where she was, then bore steadily away for Stravithie, 

 where she came from, which does away with the theory of the 

 hawk's shortness of sight. This incident proves the deadly 

 hostility the carrion crow bears the sparrow-hawk, which I have 

 repeatedly seen borne out since, and is worth recording on that 

 account. The sparrow-hawk knows it is hated by all small 

 birds, therefore, like all thieves, it approaches silently and 

 stealthily over hedges and dykes, and skims low over the 

 ground, or sits on a dyke or fence or solitary tree to reconnoitre 

 before making its deadly swoop ; and although its wings are 

 about four inches shorter than the falcon's, they are broad and 

 long enough for the most rapid evolutions, while its long tail is 

 in the air what the long tail of the shark is in the sea. There, 



