146 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



that even in the more open and moorland parts of 

 the country where they have occasionally oc- 

 curred, their depredations were of a less deter- 

 mined character than those ascribed by the keeper 

 to the bird in question; but just as I had almost 

 succeeded in persuading myself into the belief 

 that it might, after all, turn out to be a real 

 buzzard, the voice of my companion interrupted 

 my reflections, and looking up, I saw him point- 

 ing exultingly to a large female sparrowhawk, 

 which hung from the extremity of a branch, one 

 of the slender shoots of which had been twisted in 

 Jack-Ketch fashion round the neck of the bird. 



I need hardly add that my attempts to rectify 

 the error under which he laboured were lost upon 

 this uncompromising exterminator of winged ver- 

 min, or that I failed to convince him that his 

 <c buzzard-hawk" was in reality the lawful partner 

 of what he contemptuously termed the "little chap 

 with the red breast." To do him justice, however, 

 he was a zealous, though unenlightend member 

 of his calling, looking upon the preservation of 

 pheasants and partridges as " the whole duty of 

 man," and the massacre of every other species 

 of native bird, larger than a thrush, as the highest 

 effort of human genius. 



