OTHER BIRDS 85 



stoops at his quarry, but each time he missed, 

 the lark striking now to the right and now to 

 the left. The contest ended in both cases 

 by the lark dashing down to cover from a 

 great height ; one time it found refuge among 

 the shrubs in a garden, and on the second 

 occasion it came down faster than he could 

 describe with its wings closed against its 

 sides, and just slanting over the tops of some 

 fruit trees opposite, dashed straight into the 

 kitchen. To do this it had to pass through 

 the sliding door of the back-kitchen, which 

 was not more than two feet open, and then 

 through the open door of the kitchen. 

 Strange to say, it was able to check its speed 

 sufficiently to alight uninjured on the floor, 

 though utterly exhausted and helpless. My 

 friend picked it up, and having held it for 

 some minutes in his hand, let it fly away 

 seeming none the worse for its perilous 

 adventure. The hawk, he said, sailed calmly 

 once or twice round the house before he took 

 himself off. 



The following is part of a letter I received 

 in November, 1894 : "A sparrow hawk took 

 up his nightly abode on the transome of the 

 top light of a window in Arley Chapel in the 

 autumn of 1890, and remained constant to 

 that roosting place until, at all events, May, 

 1892, when we left Arley. How long it 

 stayed there after we left I cannot say, but I 

 was told last winter that it had disappeared. 



