BATTLE OF THE BIRDS 



The rook was never far behind ; almost in a 

 position to strike a blow, never quite able to get one 

 in. The hawk was always the pursued, making no 

 attempt to turn and rend the rook ; in the end he 

 escaped among the oaks, and the rook joined the 

 slow, solemn train of rooks which meantime had 

 come up and were labouring over the wood in the 

 teeth of the wind, on their way to roost. I doubt 

 whether kestrels or sparrow-hawks attack a rook or 

 a carrion crow, save when it approaches their eyrie ; 

 then they would attack fearlessly, and rout the 

 intruder, just as they themselves are put to flight by 

 rook or crow. But in a set battle, waged with equal 

 spirit by both fighters, the rook could hardly win. 

 He has superior weight, and perhaps no mean strik- 

 ing power, but he must tire before the hawk. The 

 carrion crow, in a duel to the death, would stand a 

 better chance ; a glance at that truculent head and 

 bill tells one that here the hawk would have a wicked 

 foe. Yet the crow also should go down before the 

 superior agility and staying power (on the wing) of 

 the hawk. 



Some birds fight on the ground. A friend told 

 me he saw a duel to the extreme between hen black- 

 birds. By chance, he intervened just in time to save 

 the life of one, whilst the other feebly fluttered off. 

 The keeper saw the end of a duel between cock 

 pheasants. It took place in the road through the 

 woods, and, as the keeper came up, the beaten bird 

 dropped, dying. The duelling, then, of birds, may 

 be really to the death ; differing from the squabbles 



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