84 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



the middle of the day, and even sit calmly 

 in full view on a leafless tree without attract- 

 ing the neast notice from any bird. 



The keeper tells me that brown, long- 

 eared, and short-eared owls are all to be 

 found in Warburton at times, brown owls 

 nesting here regularly. 



Sparrow hawks come to us occasionally, 

 but not so often as kestrels. The difference 

 in the behaviour of small birds with regard 

 to these two hawks is remarkable, and plainly 

 shows that they have, as a rule, little to fear 

 from kestrels. One November day, for 

 instance, a sparrow hawk appeared in a tree 

 just opposite my window, causing the greatest 

 commotion and consternation among spar- 

 rows and all other birds. A week later a 

 kestrel came to the same place at the same 

 time of the day and stayed about for a 

 considerable time, but none of the small birds 

 took the least notice of him. 



My friend at Heatley, who used to have 

 the owls as his tenants, once (in 1897) shot a 

 sparrow hawk near his house that had a 

 screaming blackbird in his talons, and was 

 tearing off from its back strips of feathers and 

 flesh together without apparently having tried 

 to kill it first. He told me that twice he had 

 seen a lark escape from a sparrow hawk. In 

 both instances the lark's idea seemed to be 

 to rise higher than the hawk, and the two kept 

 going up together. The hawk made repeated 



