HOBBY AND WOUNDED PARTRIDGE. 113 



district of the weald to the Downs or the open 

 country near the coast ; being here a summer 

 visitor, and occasionally taking up his quarters in 

 the nest of a carrion crow. Yet even in these his 

 favourite haunts, he must be considered scarce, 

 and you will rarely discover his decaying form 

 among the rows of defunct hawks which garnish 

 the gable end of the keeper's cottage a sort of 

 ornithological register which would appear to in- 

 dicate, with tolerable accuracy, the prevalence or 

 scarcity of any species of raptorial bird in its 

 immediate neighbourhood. 



The courage and address of this hawk are re- 

 markable. When shooting with a friend a few 

 years ago, during the early part of September, we 

 observed a hobby pursuing a partridge, which, 

 having been wounded in the spine, was then in 

 the act of " towering." The little fellow proved 

 himself to be a true falcon, by the rapidity with 

 which he rose above his quarry in rapid circles, 

 " climbing to the mountee," as our ancestors 

 termed this manoeuvre, with all the ease of a pere- 

 grine. Unfortunately at this juncture the par- 

 tridge became suddenly lifeless as is the case 

 with all towering birds and fell to the ground, 

 while the hobby, apparently disdaining to accept 

 a victim which he had not obtained by his own 

 exertions, scudded away after a fresh covey which 



