90 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



until they come to grief against a wire fence. 

 It is true that in the nesting-time the cock 

 ostrich is fierce and dangerous, but on the 

 whole he is not at all a brave bird. 



So far, I have been talking about birds of 

 very different groups ; but you will sometimes 

 find giants and dwarfs in the same family, and 

 in these cases it is often to be noticed that the 

 little bird has much more spirit than the big 

 one. Eagles seem grand and noble birds, and 

 some of them really are very fierce and brave ; 

 but on the whole the sparrow-hawk and 

 goshawk, and some of the falcons, show more 

 spirit, and some of the fiercest birds of prey 

 are the pigmy hawks called falconets, which 

 are found in South-Eastern Asia. These are 

 only about as big as sparrows, and mostly 

 black-and-white in colour ; and there is not 

 much that they are afraid of, for though you 

 will see one in the South Kensington Museum 

 set up in the act of pouncing on a butter- 

 fly, they kill other birds as well as insects, and 

 sometimes very big ones for their own size. 

 One was once captured in India which had 

 killed a bird bigger than itself, and, having 

 got its feet entangled with the feathers of its 



