66 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



than elongation of the prehensile organs, are all 

 furnished with comparatively short and stout toes. 



The sparrowhawk is generally diffused through- 

 out Sussex, but is much more numerous during 

 the summer in the weald than elsewhere ; and al- 

 though subjected to at least an equal share of per- 

 secution with other members of the family, yet 

 either from the nature of that thickly-wooded 

 country, or the anti-Malthusian propensities of 

 the bird itself, it still appears to hold its ground, 

 and to defy that power which has nearly extermi- 

 nated so many of its congeners, and almost swept 

 from our fauna such a list of comparatively harm- 

 less and interesting species. In none is the supe- 

 rior size and strength of the female so conspicuous 

 as in this bird, so much so, that some ornitholo- 

 gists were formerly inclined to believe in the 

 existence of more than one species. When fo- 

 raging for their young, the female attacks the 

 game-preserve, the poultry-yard and the dovecot, 

 while her diminutive partner skims along the 

 hedge, and picks off the terrified yellowhammer 

 or the crouching bullfinch from the bushes, or 

 plunges into the evergreens after the sparrow and 

 emerges on the opposite side with his screaming 

 victim in his talons. 



During winter the adult females still keep to 

 the great woods, the game-preserves, and the 



