OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 389 



That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or 

 leaves of plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks fre- 

 quently feed on the green leaves of turnips, which give a peculiar 

 flavour to their flesh that is to me very palatable : the flavour also 

 of wild ducks and geese greatly depends on the nature of their 

 food ; and their flesh frequently contracts a rank unpleasant taste 

 from their having lately fed on strong marshy aquatic plants, as I 

 suppose. 



That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive to 

 the health of birds seems probable, for many people fat their 

 ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small. 



MARKWICK, 



HEN-HARRIER. 



A neighbouring gentleman 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 tliat this bird of prey was 

 rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot 

 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 gallinre by the invention of nets and guns. WHITE. 



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 wood- 

 cock, struck it down, and carried it off, as we afterwards discovered. 



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



