SEPARATION OF THE SEXES. 67 



neighbourhood of the farm-yard; but the males 

 are more frequently met with in those parts of 

 the county which are partially enclosed, and 

 where flocks of larks and lesser conirostral 

 birds haunt the fields on the borders of thick 

 hedges and coppices. During hard weather and 

 prolonged frost the sexes separate still more 

 widely, the female remaining in the interior, and 

 the male following to the coast the swarms of 

 small birds of all kinds which then congregate in 

 the fields near the shore. In the severe winter of 

 1838-9, when I passed much time in the pursuit 

 of wild-fowl at Pagham, I noticed one morning as 

 many as twenty male sparrowhawks hanging on 

 the skirts of a miscellaneous army of little birds, 

 which extended, with slight interruption, for some 

 miles, between Aldwick and Selsey, and harassing 

 their outposts like a hostile party of Cossacks. 

 There was not a female sparrowhawk among them, 

 and these males were known to the people on the 

 coast and its neighbourhood by the name of 

 stone-falcons. 



The following is a striking instance of the blind 

 impetuosity of this bird when in pursuit of its 

 prey. In May, 1844, I received from Burton 

 Park an adult male sparrowhawk in full breeding 

 plumage, which had killed itself, or rather met its 

 death, in a singular manner. The gardener was 



