BIRDS OF PREY. 39 



rescue. For ourselves we would sooner look 

 on at a Spanish bull-fight; but the know- 

 ledge that for every time this tragedy is seen 

 it is performed unseen five hundred times may 

 be a gratification to some people. The terror 

 which the mere appearance of these birds causes 

 to the harmless birds they prey upon is but little 

 understood ; but surely no tales of ' old bogie ' 

 invented by foolish nurses to frighten children 

 exceed the reality in this case, and we can 

 fancy a partridge quieting a refractory young 

 one by telling him that the hawk should have 

 him. 



Goldsmith, in his ' Animated Nature,' tells 

 us, ' Whenever they appear in the cultivated 

 plain or the warbling grove it is only for the 

 purposes of depredation, and they are gloomy 

 intruders on the general joy of the landscape. 

 They spread terror wherever they approach, 

 all that variety of music which but a moment 

 before enlivened the grove, at their appearing 

 is at an end, every bird seeking safety in con- 



