62 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



therefore went into the house for my gun, and 

 returning in a few minutes, found him still en- 

 gaged, and so entirely was his attention absorbed 

 by his sport that I had no difficulty in walking up 

 and shooting him directly. The stomach con- 

 tained a mass of half-digested grasshoppers, and 

 the proventriculus was literally crammed with 

 them, and with nothing else. Food of this kind 

 of course soon becomes scarce as the autumn ad- 

 vances ; the same may be said of reptiles ; and of 

 the different species of mice which constitute its 

 staple support, some retire on the approach of 

 winter to their subterranean burrows under the 

 roots of trees, or occupy the deserted cellars of 

 the mole ; others, which had taken to the mea- 

 dows in the early spring, or haunted their favour- 

 ite corn-field during the summer, and afterwards 

 perseveringly gleaned the stubble as long as a 

 grain of wheat or barley was to be found, now 

 take up their winter quarters in the comfortable 

 rick close by, beyond the precincts of which they 

 seldom venture during the inclement season of the 

 year. Here, then, the supplies are cut off with 

 a vengeance, and as the windhover invariably 

 prefers fur to feather, seldom, as far as my expe- 

 rience goes, killing even a young lark which, 

 however, occasionally forms an exception to the 

 rule where mice are to be obtained, it is not dif- 



