Ij6 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



tant trees are so often deserted before completion is 

 that a solitary nest exposes both the bmWting birds 

 and their prospective offspring to grave danger from 

 hawks. No hawk wiH attempt to approach a rookery: 

 the rooks would attack him en masse and easfly 

 put hfm to flight. Chickens are safer tmder or near 

 a rookery from this cause : a hawk approaching them 

 would alarm the rooks and be beaten away. The 

 comparative safety afforded by numbers is perhaps 



The apparently defenceless martins and swallows in 

 this way dwell in some amount of security. If a 

 hawk comes near the sand quarry (or the house, in 

 the case of swallows) they all join together and pursue 

 him, twittering angrily, and as a matter of fact gener- 

 Qcceed m* sendmsr tinn about p^* IM^JH^^^, Even 

 birds which do not build in close contiguity no 

 find that a hawk is near than they rise simul- 

 taneously and follow and annoy him: so much so 

 that he win sometimes actually drop the prey he has 

 captured. It is astonishing with what temerity small 

 lards, emboldened by numbers chafBnches, finches 

 generally, sparrows, swaDows, and so on will attack 

 a hawk. 



The " quar-martins " that came to the orchard wall 

 emigrating from the quarry, and wandering about 

 in search of a suitable habitation if young birds, as 

 we have supposed them to be, would naturally not 

 yet have had much experience, and so might think 

 the steep wall (roughly resembling the face of a quarry) 



