26 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



upon handles with the head, legs, and feet in impos- 

 sible positions between the wings, and with staring 

 glass eyes, almost always of the wrong colour, doing 

 outrage to ornithological decency and all the best 

 feelings of those who love birds. Plenty of birds are 

 destroyed for our daily use, in the way of game, 

 poultry, and wild-fowl, to furnish screens for all who 

 require them, without thinning the ranks of such birds 

 as I have mentioned. Fragments of Pheasants, Part- 

 ridges, Wild Ducks, Bantams, Guinea-fowls, &c., will 

 keep off the heat of the fire as well as others, and not 

 entail unnecessary destruction. 



A very large proportion of our Kestrels generally 

 leave us on the approach of winter; in fact we seldom 

 see one of this species in this neighbourhood between 

 the beginning of December and March, but their 

 movements of course depend upon the weather, and 

 I recollect one very mild winter in which I did not 

 perceive any diminution of their numbers till a sharp 

 and prolonged frost, with some snow, in the early 

 part of March, sent them off to some milder climate 

 for several weeks. 



8. SPARROW-HAWK. 



Accipiter nisus. 



The Hawk is very common in all our district, and 

 in spite of the incessant war of extermination carried 

 on against it, and with good cause, by preservers of 

 game, I fancy that it is more common in our imme- 

 diate neighbourhood now than it was some twenty or 

 thirty years ago. I, personally, should be sorry to 

 exterminate this or any other bird, but in a semi- 



