THE SPARROW-HAWK. 153 



curlews, supposed to transform themselves into goblins 

 which go about houses after nightfall. 



The Scots also had a notion that the young curlew 

 when first hatched ran about with part of the shell still 

 adhering to their heads. In " The Abbot " Adam Wood- 

 cock is made to say, " I believe in my soul you would 

 run with a piece of the egg-shell on your head like the 

 curlews, which we used to call whaups." 



The young curlews, before they go to the sea, are excel- 

 lent eating. In Lincolnshire there is an old rhyme : 



" A curlew lean or a curlew fat 

 Carries twelve pence on her back." 



Of the Falconidce we do not meet with many species in 

 the southern districts, for although occasionally the HOBBY 

 (Falco subbuteo) or the MERLIN (Falco cesalori) may cross our 

 path, yet those commonly met with are the SPARROW-HAWK 

 and the KESTREL. 



THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



The SPARROW-HAWK (Acctpiter m'sus), the dread of the 

 farmyard, sometimes wings its rapid flight close to the 

 bushes by the river-side, ready to pounce unawares on 

 any of its denizens. It is the male, or smaller bird, we 

 generally see. The female, much 

 larger than the male, confines her- 

 self to the farmyard or game- breed- 

 ing paddocks and pigeon -houses. 

 She remains near the inhabited 

 districts, and as long as a chicken 

 or a young pheasant is left will 

 never desert the locality, unless HEAD OF THE SPARROW- 

 compelled by wounds or death. It 



is her body which is the constant companion of cats, 

 stoats, &c., on the gamekeeper's gallows-tree. 



The male, very much smaller, keeps to the hedgerows 

 and copses. His appearance at once sets the whole of the 



