72 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



days, will prevent me from taking a personal share 

 in these operations. 



" June 26. Returned home yesterday evening ; 

 and the first object that met my eyes on driving 

 up to the hall door was a row of dead sparrow- 

 hawks, seven in number, which D. had impaled, 

 each upon its own peculiar stick, with its wings 

 spread and tail expanded, as if to make the most 

 of it : there were the Patagonian old female and 

 the little cock, with his blue back and red breast, 

 and five immature birds, some of them larger than 

 the latter. 



" It was not long before Denyer made his ap- 

 pearance with a game-bag in his hand, and gave 

 the following account of his successful expedi- 

 tion : 



" Having, with the assistance of Puttock the 

 gardener and a bird-nesting lad, carefully examined 

 the great wood of Dunhurst, in which direction 

 the old sparrowhawk had flown with the young 

 pheasant, they at last found the nest in a thick 

 oak tree : it was very broad and flat, constructed 

 on that of a carrion crow, but apparently much 

 enlarged, being considerably wider, although not 

 so deep. Hearing the cries of one of the young 

 hawks at a little distance, he concealed himself 

 in the underwood, and waited until the old male 

 arrived at the nest with a lark in his claws ; him 



