OTHER BIRDS 87 



position and continued hovering just as if 

 never interrupted. 



I have heard from a man here, an old 

 gamekeeper, a story like one that I have read 

 somewhere before. He had seen a kestrel 

 pounce upon what he supposed to be a mouse 

 and fly off with it. Presently, to his surprise, 

 it fell like a stone to the ground and he 

 picked it up quite dead ; close by it he found 

 a dead stoat. 



Wild duck breed in the Bollin meadows 

 and may sometimes be seen in the garden 

 as they fly over; we see wild geese, too, 

 sometimes, and occasionally a heron. I was 

 much struck one day by the flight of a pair 

 of swans over the garden. They were not 

 flying high, but side by side, with their long 

 necks stretched out, with strong regular 

 wing-beats; without haste and without effort, 

 they held on their straight and even course 

 at a good steady pace. It gave me rather a 

 strange impression of dignity and power. 



One or two pairs of wood-pigeons build in 

 the garden every year, but they are not as 

 common in Warburton as in more wooded 

 country, though sometimes large flocks visit 

 us in autumn (e.g., in 1910). My friend at 

 Heatley told me that one year when a great 

 many had come to feed on acorns in a wood 

 near his house, he had hoped from the shelter 

 of a wooden hut to make a good bag, but he 

 found that in spite of their numbers they 



