68 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



watering plants in the greenhouse, the door being 

 open, when a blackbird dashed in suddenly, tak- 

 ing refuge between his legs, and at the same mo- 

 ment the glass roof above his head was broken 

 with a loud crash, and a hawk fell dead at his feet. 

 The force of the swoop was so great that for a 

 moment he imagined a stone hurled from a dis- 

 tance to have been the cause of the fracture. On 

 dissecting the bird T found that there was a good 

 deal of extravasated blood on the upper surface of 

 both lobes of the brain and around the optic 

 nerves, the eyes being also much suffused, but no 

 portion of the body or limbs presented any marks 

 of violence, except a slight laceration of the alular 

 feathers on one wing and the plumage of the 

 breast. 



I have already alluded to the destructive habits 

 of the sparrowhawk : the depredations of this lit- 

 tle tyrant of our woods and groves certainly sur- 

 pass those of any other British bird of prey, in 

 proportion to its size, and unfortunately, as I have 

 said, many of our rarer and comparatively harm- 

 less birds are compelled to suffer for its misdeeds.* 



* The cuckoo, as every one knows, bears a strong resem- 

 blance to the male sparrowhawk at a distance its general 

 form and manner of flight being very similar when the 

 beak and feet are not seen. In a remote part of Sussex 



