390 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



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 evening, I shot at and plainly saw that 

 I had wounded a partridge, but it being late, was obliged to go 

 home without finding it again. The next morning I walked round 

 my land without any gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my 

 heels. When I came near the field where I wounded the bird the 

 evening before, I heard the partridges call, and seeming to be much 

 disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, they all rose, some on 

 my. right, and some on my left hand ; and just before and over my 

 head, I perceived (though indistinctly from the extreme velocity of 

 their motion) two birds fly directly against each other, when 

 instantly, to my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge 

 at my feet ; the dog immediately seized it, and on examination, I 

 found the blood flow very fast from a fresh wound in the head, but 

 there was some dry clotted blood on its wings and side ; whence 

 I concluded that a hawk had singled out my wounded bird as the 

 object of his prey, and had struck it down the instant that my 

 approach had obliged the birds to rise on the wing ; but the space 

 between the hedges was so small, and the motion of the birds so 

 instantaneous and quick, that I cowld not distinctly observe the 

 operation, MARKWICK. 



GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. 



As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest from 

 Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird 

 fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home 

 alive. On examination it proved to be Colymbus glacialis, Linn., 

 the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently described 

 in Willughby's Ornithology. 



Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably adapted 

 to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom of God 

 in the creation to more advantage. The head is sharp and smaller 

 than the part of the neck adjoining, in order that it may pierce the 

 water ; the wings are placed forward, and out of the centre of gravity, 

 for a purpose which shall be noticed hereafter ; the thighs quite at 

 the podex, in order to facilitate diving ; and the legs are flat, and as 

 harp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in striking they 



