THE SPARROW HAWK 139 



particularly in the spring, when on a fine calm 

 morning soon after daybreak you may see it 

 flying high in the air. This is usually over the 

 wood where the nest is to be. Above this the 

 mated birds will fly backwards and forwards, 

 sailing round and round for an hour or more, but 

 even then one can tell them from other hawks, 

 the shape of their wings and tail serving to dis- 

 tinguish them; moreover, they never hang in the 

 air on quivering wings like the kestrel. When 

 you see a hawk hovering it is a certainty that 

 it is the latter on the look-out for a mouse, for 

 it does not chase its prey, but waits aloft until it 

 sees something move, when it drops like a stone 

 upon the vole or other small creature. Now the 

 sparrow hawk is a hunter, it chases its victims, 

 and when it goes aloft it is for pleasure, not 

 business. The only time I have seen a sparrow 

 hawk hang in the air for a moment was in the case 

 of a tame trained female named Bessie. For 

 some reason she was out of temper, and when I 

 slipped her at a blackbird that had got up at my 

 very feet she refused to chase it, flew away, and 

 " took stand " in a tree. There she sat and sulked, 

 regardless of all the tempting morsels with which 

 I tried to get her down. She took no notice 

 whatever of the good things offered on the fist, 

 and even " the lure " (in this case a dead sparrow 

 tied to a string) hardly made her turn her head, 

 but when I left her alone and walked off a little 

 distance she began to take an interest in some 

 object on the ground. She peered down, then 



