ANECDOTE. 69 



force of the swoop was so great that for a moment 

 he imagined a stone, hurled from a distance, to 

 have been the cause of the fracture. On dissecting 

 the bird I found that there was a good deal of ex- 

 travasated blood on the upper surface of both lobes 

 of the brain and around the optic nerves, the eyes 

 being also much suffused, but no portion of the 

 body or limbs presented any marks of violence, 

 except a slight laceration of the alular feathers on 

 one wing and the plumage of the breast. 



I have already alluded to the destructive habits 

 of the sparrowhawk : the depredations of this little 

 tyrant of our woods and groves certainly surpass 

 those of any other British bird of prey, in propor- 

 tion to its size ; and unfortunately, as I have said, 

 many of our rarer and comparatively harmless 

 birds are compelled to suffer for its misdeeds.* 



* The cuckoo, as every one knows, bears a strong resem- 

 blance to the male sparrowhawk at a distance its general 

 form and manner of flight being very similar when the 

 beak and feet are not seen. In a remote part of Sussex 

 I once encountered a native who exercised the double calling 

 of bailiff and " varmint "-killer, and who, on my remon- 

 strating with him for having shot and crucified so many 

 innocent cuckoos, assured me very gravely that although 

 those birds were called cuckoos throughout the summer, 

 they became hawks in the winter ; the bill and claws gra- 

 dually assuming the true falconine character. This was 

 near the coast, where the sparrowhawk is rare in the former 



