340 WHITE 



HEN HARRIER. A neighboring gentleman sprung a pheas- 

 ant in a wheat stubble, and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding 

 the report of the gun, it was 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 hov- 

 ering 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 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 trod on, which 

 no doubt was intended as a mode of security ; though long 

 rendered destructive to the whole race of gallinae by the in- 

 vention of nets and guns. WHITE. 



Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey when 

 urged on by hunger, I have seen several instances ; particu- 

 larly when shooting in the winter in company with two friends 

 a woodcock flew across us, closely pursued by a small hawk ; 

 we all three fired at the woodcock instead of the hawk, which, 

 notwithstanding the report of three guns close by it, continued 

 its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and carried it off, 

 as we afterwards discovered. 



At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, we 

 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 we were in pursuit of ; and lastly, in an evening, I shot 

 at and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, 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 

 favorite 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 



