Boldness of Hawks. 125 



Hawks have a habit of perching on the tops of 

 bare poles or dead trees, and are there frequently 

 caught in the gin the keeper sets for them. The 

 cuckoo, which so curiously resembles the hawk, has 

 the same habit, and will perch on a solitary post in 

 the middle of a field, or on those upright stones 

 sometimes placed for the cattle to rub themselves 

 against. Though ' wild as a hawk ' is a proverbial 

 phrase, yet hawks are bold enough to enter gardens, 

 and even take their prey from the ivy which grows 

 over the gable of the house. The destruction they 

 work among the young partridges in early summer 

 is very great. The keeper is always shooting them, 

 yet they come just the same, or nearly ; for, if he 

 exterminates them one season, others arrive from a 

 distance. He is particularly careful to look out for 

 their nests, so as to kill both the old birds and to 

 prevent their breeding. There is little difficulty in 

 finding the nest (which is built in a high tree) when 

 the young get to any size ; their cry is unmistakable 

 and audible at some distance. 



Against sparrow-hawk and kestrel, and the rarer 

 kinds that occasionally come down from the mountains 

 of the north or the west — the magazines of these 

 birds — the keeper wages ceaseless war. 



So too with jay and magpie ; he shoots them 



