OF NATUKK. 435 



saw a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in 

 its claws ; though at a great distance, we both fired and 

 obliged it to drop its prey, which proved to be one of the 

 partridges which w r e were in pursuit of; and lastly, in an 

 evening, I shot at and plainly saw that I had wounded a par- 

 tridge, but it being late was obliged to go home without 

 finding it again. The next morning I walked round my land 

 without any gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my 

 heels. When I came near the field where I wounded the 

 bird the evening before, I heard the partridges call, and 

 seeming to be much disturbed. On my approaching the 

 bar-way they all rose, some on my right and some on my 

 left hand ; and just before and over my head, I perceived 

 (though indistinctly, from the extreme velocity of their mo- 

 tion) two birds fly directly against each other, when instantly, 

 to my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge at my 

 feet : the dog immediately seized it, and on examination I 

 found the blood flow very fast from a fresh wound in the 

 head, but there was some dry clotted blood on its wings and 

 side ; whence I concluded that a hawk had singled out my 

 wounded bird as the object of his prey, and had struck it 

 down the instant that my approach had obliged the birds to 

 rise on the wing ; but the space between the hedges was so 

 small, and the motion of the birds so instantaneous and quick, 

 that 1 could not distinctly observe the operation. MARK- 

 WICK. 



GEE AT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON*. 



As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest 

 from Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon 

 bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he 

 brought home alive. On examination it proved to be colym- 

 bus glacialis Linn, the great speckled diver or loon, which is 

 most excellently described in Willughby's Ornithology. 



* [This is not the only instance of the occurrence of this bird at 

 Wolmer. A specimen was brought to me many years since, and is now in 

 the museum at Alton. T. B.] 



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