44(5 OBSERVATIONS ON 



HEN HARRIER. 



MR. WHITE, of Newton, sprung a pheasant in a 

 wheat stubble, and shot at it; when, notwithstanding 

 the report of the gun, it was immediately pursued by 

 the blue hawk, known by the name of the hen harrier, 

 but escaped into some covert. He then sprung a 

 second, and a third, in the same field, that got away in 

 the same manner; the hawk hovering round him all 

 the while that he was beating the field, conscious no 

 doubt of the game that lurked in the stubble. Hence 

 we may conclude that this bird of prey was rendered 

 very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks can- 

 not always seize their game when they please. We 

 may farther observe, that they cannot pounce their 

 quarry on the ground, where it might be able to make 

 a stout resistance, since so large a fowl as a pheasant 

 could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a hawk, 

 when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity 

 of cowering and squatting till they are almost trod on, 

 which no doubt was intended as a mode of security: 

 though long rendered destructive to the whole race of 

 Gallince by the invention of nets and guns 11 . 



11 Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey, when urged on 

 by hunger, I have seen several instances ; particularly, when shooting in 

 the winter in company with two friends, a woodcock flew across us closely 

 pursued by a small hawk ; we all three fired at the woodcock instead of 

 the hawk, which, notwithstanding the report of three guns close by it, 

 continued its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and carried it oil, 

 as we afterwards discovered. 



At another time, when partridge shooting with a friend, we saw a ring- 

 tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws; though at a 

 great distance, we both fired and obliged it to drop its prey, which proved 

 to be one of the partridges which we were in pursuit of. And lastly, in an 



in summer; and therefore, it has been so ordained, that the nightingale, 

 the whitethroat, and many others should migrate during the winter to a 

 warmer climate, where they can be in little danger of perishing by famine. 

 The swallows, flycatchers, and other birds, which capture insects on the 

 wing, would obviously be starved to death at the very commencement of 

 the cold weather. RENME. 



