486 



A HISTORY OF 



named them. The goss-hawk and sparrow- 

 hawk are what Mr. Willoughby calls short- 

 winged birds, and consequently unfit for train- 

 ing, however injurious they may be to the 

 pigeon-house or the sportsman. They have 

 been indeed taught to fly at game ; but little 



is to be obtained from thrir efforts, being 

 difficult of instruction, and capricious in their 

 obedience. It has been lately asserted, how- 

 ever, by one whose authority is respectable, 

 that the sparrow-hawk is the boldest and the 

 best of all others for the pleasure of the chase.* 



CHAPTER LXXXVI. 



THE BUTCHER-BIRD. 



BEFORE I conclude this short history of 

 rapacious birds that prey by day, I must take 

 leave to describe a tribe of smaller birds, that 

 seem from their size rather to be classed with 

 the harmless order of the sparrow kind ; but 

 that from their crooked beak, courage, and 

 appetites for slaughter, certainly deserve a place 

 here. The lesser butcher-bird is not much 

 above the size of a lark ; that of the smallest 

 species is not so big as a sparrow ; yet diminu- 

 tive as these little animals are, they make 

 themselves formidable to birds four times their 

 dimensions. 



The greater butcher-bird is about as large 

 as a thrush ; its bill is black, an inch long, and 

 hooked at the end. This mark, together with 

 its carnivorous appetites, ranks it among the 

 rapacious birds ; at the same time that its legs 

 and feet, which are slender, and its toes, form- 

 ed somewhat differently from the former, 

 would seem to make it the shade between 

 such birds as live wholly upon flesh, and such 

 as live chiefly upon insects and grain. 



Indeed, its habits seem entirely to corres- 

 pond with its conformation, as it is found to 

 live as well upon flesh as upon insects, and 

 thus to partake in some measure of a double 



The Secretary Falcon, an inhabitant of Asia and 

 Africa, is a curious bird, for whose natural history we are 

 chiefly indebted to the indefatigable labours of M. le 

 Vuillant. Its body, when standing erect, is not much un- 

 like the crane ; but its head, bill, and claws, are precisely 

 those of the falcon. The general colour of the plumage 

 is a bluish-ash ; the tips of the wings, the thighs, and the 

 vent, being blackish : the tail is black near the end, but 

 the very tip is white: the legs are long, so that it mea- 

 sures, when standing erect, full three feet from the top of 

 the head to the ground. On the back of the head are 



nature. However, its appetite for flesh is the 

 most prevalent ; and it never takes up with 

 the former when it can obtain the latter. 

 This bird, then-fore, leads a life of continual 

 combat and opposition. As from its size it 

 does not much terrify the smaller birds of the 

 forest, so it very frequently meets birds will- 

 ing to try its strength, and it never declines 

 the engagement. 



It is wonderful to see with what intrepidity 

 this little creature goes to war with the pie, 

 the crow, and the kestril, all above four times 

 bigger than itself, and that sometimes prey 

 upon flesh in the same manner. It not only 

 fights upon the defensive, but often comes to 

 the attack, and always with advantage, par- 

 ticularly when the male and female unite to 

 protect thi-ir young, and to drive away the 

 more powerful birds of rapine. At that sea- 

 son, they do not wait the approach of their in- 

 vader ; it is sufficient that they see him pre- 

 paring for the assault at a distance. It is then 

 that they sally forth with loud cries, wound 

 him on every side, and drive him off with such 

 fury, that he seldom ventures to return to the 

 charge. In these kinds of disputes, they 

 generally come off with the victory ; though it 



several long dark-coloured feathers, hanging down behind; 

 and which it can erect at pleasure. This crest has induced 

 the Dutch at the Cape to give it the name of the Secre- 

 tary, from the resemblance they fancy it has to the pen of 

 a writer, when in the time of leisure it is stuck behind the 

 ear. 



In the craw of one of this kind, M. le Vaillant found 

 eleven tolerable large lizards, three serpents as long as 

 his arm, eleven small tortoises of about two inches in di- 

 ameter, and a number of locusts and other insects, some of 

 which were so entire, that he added .them to his collection. 



