FALCO NISSUS. 103 



see it sweeping and peering over that grass field a few feet from 

 the ground ; then over the low hedge ; a few minutes on the 

 fence rail J then, with an upward bend, perches on that old ash 

 tree (the last to put on its tardy livery of green). It sits at 

 first straight up, as a falcon used to sit on the wrist, with hood 

 and jesses on. But see, it bends forward, raises its wings, then 

 swoops down with lightning speed. What commotion amongst 

 the sparrows in that hedge, started by the clear twink ! twink ! 

 of the bonnie sprightly chaffinch. But what cares the daring 

 little robber for the sharp warning of the tiny, officious, 

 feathered police. It snatches its victim, and is off as silently as 

 it came, with its prey in its grasp, followed by the clamour and 

 false courage of a hundred noisy little throats — the clear twink ! 

 twink ! heard above the yelping of the sparrows. So swift and 

 unerring is the swoop of this bold little hawk that I have seen 

 it rush headlong into a hedge, and emerge on the other side 

 with a thrush in its talons. It has been known to seize a lark 

 from the deck of a passenger steamer, even at the feet of the 

 jjassengers. When gliding over the fields it clutches birds, mice, 

 weasels, young rabbits, leverets, and every living creature it 

 comes across, even seizing full-grown rabbits. Mr Hepburn saw 

 one fix its talons into an old rabbit, which ran like the deer 

 with the eagle, till both were caught in a brier bush — and the 

 hawk only flew off when the gentleman shouted. It will 

 sometimes fly rapidly round bushes and hedges — like a 

 huntsman beating a cover — where a flock of sparrows have 

 taken shelter, till one shows itself, which it clutches, then off 

 like a shot. 



Mr Weir, a painstaking naturalist, says — "From a hut, 

 formed by the branches of trees, I watched a pair of hawks 

 feeding their half-fledged young. The female sat upon them. 

 The male alighted on the top of a tree forty yards off, with a 

 bird in his grasp. She went and took it from him and divided 

 it among her young. He sometimes brought a blackbird or a 

 mavis, but oftener a lark, a yellow bunting, or a chaffinch." 

 The sparrow-hawk is, I think, a far more natural way of keeping 

 down blackbirds and other thieves of the orchard than sparrow- 

 hail. The same gentleman watched another pair early one morning 

 for five hours. The male, like the other, always alighted on the 

 top of a tree some distance from the nest, with a bird in his claws, 

 and called on his mate, who came and took it from him in her 

 bill. He shot her as she was carrying it to her young, at nine 

 o'clock. He went back at six in the evening with a boy to 



