394 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



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 ob- 

 serve, 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 de- 

 structive to the whole race of gallinse 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 

 woodcock, struck it down, and carried it off, as we afterwards 

 discovered. 



At another time, when partridge- shooting with a friend, we saw 

 a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws ; 

 though at a great distance ; we both fired and obliged it to drop 

 its prey, which proved to be one of the partridges which we were 

 in pursuit of; and lastly, in an evening, I shot at and plainly saw 

 that I had wounded a partridge, but it being late, was obliged 

 to go home without finding it again. The next morning I walked 

 round my land without any gun, but a favourite old spaniel 

 followed my heels. When I came near the field where I wounded 

 the bird the evening before, I heard the partridges call, and 

 seeming to be much disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, 

 they all rose, some on my right and some on my left hand ; and 

 just before and over my head, I perceived (though indistinctly 

 from the extreme velocity of their motion) two birds fly directly 

 against each other, when instantly, to my great astonishment, 

 down dropped a partridge at my feet; the dog immediately 



