14 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY, 



flight over the summit. It is only necessary to raise 

 the head a little way, and the cool breeze refreshes 

 the cheek cool at this height while the plains beneath 

 glow under the heat 



Presently a small swift shadow passes across: it is 

 that of a hawk flying low over the hill. He skirts 

 it for some distance, and then shoots out into the 

 air, comes back halfway, and hangs over the fallow 

 below, where there is a small rick His wings vi- 

 brate, striking the air downwards, and only slightly 

 backwards, the tail depressed counteracting the in- 

 clination to glide forwards for a while. In a few 

 moments he slips, as it were, from his balance, but 

 brings himself up again in a few yards, turning a 

 curve so as to still hover above the rick. If he espies 

 a tempting morsel he drops like a stone, and alights 

 on a spot almost exactly below him a power which 

 few birds seem to possess. Most of them approach the 

 ground gradually, the plane of their flight sloping 

 slowly to the earth, and the angle decreasing every 

 moment till it becomes parallel, when they have only 

 to drop their legs, shut their wings, and, as it were, 

 stand upright in the air to find themselves safe on 

 the sward. By that time their original impetus has 

 diminished, and they feel no shock from the cessation 

 of motion. The hawk, on the contrary, seems to 

 descend nearly in a perpendicular line. 



The lark does the same, and often from a still 

 greate- height, descending so swiftly that by com- 

 parison with other birds it looks as if she must be 



