98 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



ground, one of these hawks has placed himself 

 directly over my head, within fifteen or twenty 

 yards of me ; and it has perhaps acquired the habit 

 of following a horseman in this way in order to 

 strike at any birds driven up. On one occasion 

 my horse almost trod on a couple of snipe squatting 

 terrified in the short grass. The instant they rose 

 the hawk struck at one, the end of his wing violently 

 smiting my cheek as he stooped, and striking at 

 the snipe on a level with the knees of my horse. 

 The snipe escaped by diving under the bridle, and 

 immediately dropped down on the other side of me, 

 and the hawk, rising up, flew away. 



To return. I think I am justified in believing that 

 fear of hawks, like fear of men, is, in very nearly 

 all cases, the result of experience and tradition. 

 Nevertheless, I think it probable that in some 

 species which have always lived in the open, con- 

 tinually exposed to attack, and which are preferred 

 as food by raptors, such as duck, snipe, and 

 plover, the fear of the falcon may be an inherited 

 habit. Among passerine birds I am also inclined 

 to think that swallows show inherited fear of hawks. 

 Swallows and humming-birds have least to fear 

 from raptors; yet, while humming-birds readily 

 pursue and tease hawks, thinking as little of them 

 as of pigeons or herons, swallows everywhere mani- 

 fest the greatest terror at the approach of a true 

 falcon ; and they also fear other birds of prey, 

 though in a much less degree. It has been said 

 that the European hobby occasionally catches swal- 

 lows on the wing, but this seems a rare and ex- 

 ceptional habit, and in South America I have 



