78 GA^IE PRESERVERS AXD BIRD PRESERVERS. 



feeding in an open wire plieasantry, and wishing 

 we liad twenty-five instead of seven of these 

 "birds, wlien like a flash of brown hgrhtning; down 

 came a sparrow-hawk at him. The pheasant is 

 a particularly sharp bird, and is as rarely found 

 fast asleep as the proverbial weasel. This one 

 was equal to the occasion. He neatly dodged the 

 hawk; and, with his friends, retiring to the shelter 

 of a large thick bush which grew in the middle of 

 the pheasantry nearly as quickly as his enemy had 

 descended, ' Accipiter Fringillarius ' found him - 

 self on the ground with all his wind knocked out 

 by the wire netting, this netting being a feature 

 in the landscape which had escaped his obser- 

 vation. He felt that his position was a false one, 

 and tried to escape by flying round and round 

 against the wire instead of ascending ; and we 

 complicated matters by arriving at the scene of 

 action with our gun, and, though he cleverly 

 managed to keep the bush between us for 

 some time, we ultimately shot him. ]N'ow this 

 hawk's conduct was unpardonable. They had 



