

188 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



[LETT. 



immediately pursued by the blue hawk known by the name of 

 the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung 

 a second and a third in the same field, that got away in the same 

 manner ; the hawk hovering round him all the while that he 

 was beating the field, conscious no doubt of the game that lurked 

 in the stubble. Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey 

 was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks 

 cannot always seize their game when they please. We may 

 farther observe, that they cannot pounce on their quarry on the 

 ground, where it might be able to make a stout resistance, since 

 so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the 

 piercing eye of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence 

 that propensity of cowering and squatting till they are almost 



I'HKASANT 8 



trod on, which no doubt was intended as a mode of security 

 though long rendered destructive to the whole race of Gullina- 

 by the invention of nets and guns.] 



When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizon- 

 tally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when 

 in motion, bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 



Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 

 breeding-time; as soon as frosty mornings come they make n 

 very piping plaintive noise. 



Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume 

 their notes again in September; as the thrush, blackbird, 

 woodlark, willow-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the 

 most mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. 



