SIXTH DAY. 99 



us past a marshy little glade, much frequented as a breeding- 

 place by Mallards and Moorhens. 



At the end of this glade was a tolerably large nest on a 

 high oak, and the forester said that he had never managed 

 to make out what bird it belonged to, but at first sight the 

 whole fabric looked to me like the abode of a Common 

 Buzzard. 



The first tap on the stem of the tree frightened out a little 

 Hobby, which I hit pretty hard with my first barrel, but un- 

 luckily failed to find in the thick, almost impenetrable under- 

 wood. It seemed to me incredible that a construction of this 

 size could belong to so small a bird, and the forester also 

 thought that the hawk which he had seen here before was 

 much bigger. I therefore resolved to conceal myself under 

 the nest, and sent him back to the meadow. 



After a while a Peregrine flew high overhead, and I hoped 

 that this rare bird of prey would prove to be the owner of the 

 nest, but it soon vanished ; and a few minutes later a good- 

 sized hawk, about as big as a Common Buzzard, came flying 

 through the trees, close to the ground, but so fast that I had 

 no time to identify it. Before it could settle in the nest, I 

 wounded it with my first barrel, and it sank slowly down 

 among the trunks of the trees, where I lost sight of it in 

 a thicket ; and though we searched most carefully tuft by 

 tuft, the high sedgy grass baffled all our efforts to find it. 

 This mishap I much regretted, as it would have been highly 

 interesting to have discovered the species to which this large 

 hawk belonged, and what had induced the little Hobby 

 to take possession of its nest, a fact I can in no way 

 account for. 



As well as I could make out during the few moments before 

 I fired my second shot, it was a Pygmy Eagle ; but of this I 

 cannot be certain, as I have so seldom met with this rare 

 species, and am therefore very imperfectly acquainted with it. 



