TAMED HAWKS. 143 



she avoided them altogether, and incessantly struggled round 

 the enclosure in hopes of escaping. 



Another instance has heen noticed near Lichfield. A 

 female of the same species, domesticated and kept in a garden, 

 was set with some eggs of the common poultry, which she 

 hatched at the usual time. When the chickens were freed 

 from the shell, this strange stepmother defended them in the 

 most furious manner, scarcely allowing any person to approach 

 the wooden box in which they were hatched and kept, and 

 to which they retired whenever they chose ; and no dog or 

 cat could venture near without "being stoutly assailed by the 

 Buzzard. Its fury far surpassed that of a common Hen, as 

 long as the chickens were young and helpless, but gradually 

 slackened as they grew older ; the habits of affection, however, 

 never entirely ceased, for the chickens, after they became full- 

 grown fowls, remained with it, and all lived together in the 

 same garden in perfect harmony. A single instance of so 

 extraordinary a deviation from the general habits of birds, 

 might have been received with hesitation, but when corrobo- 

 rated by similar occurrences, on record in other places, its 

 truth scarcely admits of a doubt. We have heard, indeed, a 

 still more extraordinary circumstance, namely, that of an 

 Eagle, at an inn at Uxbridge, which also hatched and brought 

 up several broods of poultry. 



The attention of the Turks and Egyptians to certain Hawks, 

 most probably arises from the respect paid to them in ancient 

 times, when the Hawk was held sacred, and when even acci- 

 dentally to kill one was punished by a heavy fine ; and de- 

 signedly to deprive it of life was a capital offence, and the 

 culprit suffered death. Various reasons are mentioned by old 

 writers for this veneration. Thus the Eagle was worshipped, 

 as a royal bird, and the favourite of their god Jupiter. The 

 Hawks were worshipped for different reasons ; some because 

 they were supposed to destroy scorpions, serpents, and divers 

 dangerous reptiles. Others again were deified, or held sacred, 

 because the priests, or augurs as they were called, made use 

 of their swift flight in their divinations, or pretended fore- 



