52 Poachers and Poaching. 



less than from one hundred and twenty to one 

 hundred and fifty times in a minute. This is 

 counting only the downward strokes, so that the 

 bird really makes from two hundred and forty 

 to three hundred separate movements a minute. 

 The rook and heron fly in almost straight lines, 

 have large rounded wings, and float with the 

 greatest ease upon the air. The rook in its 

 measured flight makes about five-and-twenty 

 miles an hour ; the heron thirty. Our short- 

 winged game birds fly with incredible velocity, 

 and any attempt to observe or count their wing 

 movements leaves but a blurred impression on 

 the eye, whilst in some species so quick is the 

 vibratory movement as to prevent its being seen. 

 Driven grouse flying " down wind " have been 

 known to seriously stun sportsmen by falling 

 upon their heads. A grouse does not move its 

 wings so rapidly as a partridge, though the late 

 C. S. was once clean knocked out of a battery 

 by a grouse he had shot falling upon him ; and in 

 this way loaded guns have frequently been fired 

 by dead birds. The Duke of Beaufort upon one 

 occasion picked up a brace of grouse which had 

 cannoned and killed each other in mid- air, and 

 colliding is not an unfrequent occurrence. As 

 illustrating a remarkable quality of flight, the 

 case of the kestrel or windhover may be taken. 

 On a summer day one may frequently see this 

 pretty little falcon standing against the blue in 





