THE GROUSE DISEASE. 31 



head and a sword by his side, and he is 

 the beau ideal of a gay cavalier. And no 

 English lady looks fresher or comes down 

 to breakfast more neatly dressed than the hen, 

 until her feathers get ruffled for want of time 

 to attend to her toilet, and she spoils her 

 tail by sitting too long in one position. But 

 the Eev. H. B. Tristram has noticed that when a 

 hawk pursues a flock of birds he always strikes 

 the hindermost, and of course this is the 

 weakest. We do not agree to this, because 

 birds, are so even in their powers of flight that in 

 the short distance that a hawk follows them, 

 this hindermost bird would be simply the one 

 which sprang from the heather some twenty 

 yards nearer to the hawk, and he is never able 

 to regain his lost advantage. Mr. Tristram does 

 not tell us, however, that for six months out of 

 the twelve it will be a pair of grouse and not a 

 flock which will rise before the falcon ; or if he 

 has noticed in this case that it is always the 

 hen which he kills. Whichever he kills, it is 



