408 The Natural History of Selborne 



ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws ; 

 though at a great distance ; we both fired and obliged it to drop its 

 prey, which proved to be one of the partridges which we were in 

 pursuit of ; and lastly, in an evening, I shot at^ and plainly saw that 

 I had wounded a partridge, but it being late, was obliged to go home 

 without finding it again. The next morning I walked round my 

 land without any gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my heels. 

 When I came near the field where I wounded the bird the evening 

 before, I heard the partridges call, and seeming to be much disturbed. 

 On my approaching the bar- way, they all rose, some on my right, 

 and some on my left hand; and just before and over my head, I 

 perceived (though indistinctly from the extreme velocity of their 

 motion) two birds fly directly against each other, when instantly, to 

 my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge at my feet ; the 

 dog immediately seized it, and on examination, I found the blood flow 

 very fast from a fresh wound in the head, but there was some dry 

 clotted blood on its wings and side ; whence I concluded that a hawk 

 had singled out my wounded bird as the object of his prey, and had 

 struck it down the instant that my approach had obliged the birds to 

 rise on the wing ; but the space between the hedges was so small, and 

 the motion of the birds so instantaneous and quick, that I could not 

 distinctly observe the operation. MARKWICK. 



GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. 



As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest from Bram- 

 shot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering in 

 the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On exami- 

 nation it proved to be Colymbus glacialis, Linn., the great speckled 

 diver or loon, which is most excellently described in Willughby's 

 Ornithology. 



Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably adapted 

 to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom of God 

 in the creation to more advantage. The head is sharp and smaller 



