142 TAMED HAWKS. 



Pigeons, and associated with them. At first the Pigeons 

 were rather shy of meeting their natural enemy on such an 

 occasion, hut they soon became familiarized, and approached 

 without fear. It was curious to observe the playfulness of 

 the Hawk, and his perfect good-humour during feeding-time ; 

 for he received his portion without any of that ferocity with 

 which birds of prey usually take their food, and merely 

 uttered a cry of lamentation when disappointed of his morsel. 

 When the feast was over, he would attend the Pigeons in 

 their flight round and round the house and gardens, and 

 perch with them on the chimney-top or roof of the house, and 

 this voyage he never failed to take early every morning, when 

 the Pigeons took their exercise. At night he retired and 

 roosted with them in the dovecot ; and though for some days 

 after his first appearance, he had it all to himself, the Pigeons 

 not liking such an intruder, they shortly became good friends, 

 and he was never known even to touch a young one, unfledged, 

 helpless, and tempting as they must have been. He seemed 

 quite unhappy at any separation from them, and when pur- 

 posely confined in another abode, he constantly uttered most 

 melancholy cries, which were changed to tones of joy and 

 satisfaction on the appearance of any person with whom he 

 was familiar. The narrator of the above concludes his ac- 

 count by adding, that he was as playful as a kitten and as 

 loving as a dove. In Egypt and Turkey, too, a particular 

 species is often domesticated, and may be seen in the farm- 

 yards and gardens, like the Sparrow-hawk just mentioned, in 

 company with Pigeons, without showing any inclination to 

 injure them ; and in the course of 1833, a Hawk, which we 

 believe to be of a similar species ffo that domesticated in 

 Turkey, namely, the common Buzzard, not only sat upon the 

 eggs of a common barn-door fowl, but instead of devouring 

 them when hatched, according to its natural habit, actually 

 paid them considerable attention, as long as they were allowed 

 to remain in the place where they were hatched, though when 

 removed to another more spacious enclosed situation, with the 

 brood, notwithstanding she showed no inclination to kill them, 



