A GAMEKEEPER'S ORNITHOLOGY. 145 



had ample time for conjecture as to the species of 

 the promised prize. I should have concluded 

 that it was a female of one of the harriers, were it 

 not that these birds, sufficiently rare in all locali- 

 ties, had never, to my knowledge, been observed 

 in this thickly-wooded portion of the weald, and 

 that even in the more open and moorland parts of 

 the country where they have occasionally oc- 

 curred, their depredations were of a less deter- 

 mined character than those ascribed by the keeper 

 to the bird in question ; but just as I had almost 

 succeeded in persuading myself into the belief 

 that it might, after all, turn out to be a real 

 buzzard, the voice of my companion interrupted 

 my reflections, and looking up, I saw him point- 

 ing exultingly to a large female sparrowhawk, 

 which hung from the extremity of a branch, one 

 of the slender shoots of which had been twisted in 

 Jack-Ketch fashion round the neck of the bird. 



I need hardly add that my attempts to rectify 

 the error under which he laboured were lost upon 

 this uncompromising exterminator of winged ver- 

 min, or that I failed to convince him that his 

 "buzzard-hawk" was in reality the lawful partner 

 of what he contemptuously termed "the little chap 

 with the red breast." To do him justice, however, 

 he was a zealous, though unenlightened member 

 of his calling, looking upon the preservation of 



