22 



THE NATURE BOOK 



are also highly specialised in tooth and 

 talon ; whilst their cousins of the night 

 have acquired soft feathers for noiseless 

 flight and powers of \'ision adapted to 

 their twilight wanderings. Birds which 

 dwell much in trees and nightly rest 

 thereon have the hind toe and claw well 

 developed, in order that they may securely 

 grasp the swaying branches. Diving birds, 

 from habits long indulged, have modified 

 their wings to such an 

 extent that they now 

 serve as useful fins ; 

 whilst the tail, which 

 would be an impedi- 

 ment to submerged 

 flight, has practiciiJly 

 aborted, as may be 

 well seen in the (irebes. 

 Woodpeckers, using 

 their caudal appendage 

 as a prop or stay 

 whilst prospecting per- 

 pendicular tree trunks 

 "for food, have, after 

 long ages of such 

 action, greatly 

 strengthened this 

 point of resistance. 



The old Linnean 

 sj'stem of classifica- 

 tion, in which birds 

 of prey head the list 

 — di\'ided into day 

 and night feeders — 

 forms, I think, the 

 easiest form of first 

 aid both in nomenclature and identifica- 

 tion of species. We will therefore just 

 run through the si.x great families, and 

 then ])roceed to some more original 

 sortation remarks, such as descriptions 

 of peculiarities of shape and make, note 

 or ha])it, which may assist the tyro 

 naturalist in answering the oft-asked 

 question, " What bird was that which I 

 saw just now l)y sea marge or river side, 

 in hedge or field or wood, or marsh or 

 garden-grass plat ? " 



The Eagle is generally looked upon as 

 the King of Birds, and the order to which 

 it belongs ranks first in the Linnean 

 classification to which I have referred ; 

 but, with the exception of a chance sight 

 of a Golden Eagle in the north of Scot- 



GREEN WOODPECKER 



land, no real Eagles are likely to be met 

 with by my readers. 



All the Hawk tribe are Eagles in minia- 

 ture, and two species of Hawks are more 

 or less common in every English county — 

 the Kestrel and the Sparrow Hawk, the 

 former being the most frequent. How, 

 then, may we be able to distinguish 

 the one from the other ? Chieflv from 

 their distinctive habits. 



Generally speaking, 

 all other birds are 

 more or less afraid 

 of birds of prey — 

 Eagles, Hawks, and 

 Owls ; and our atten- 

 tion is very likely to 

 be first attracted to the 

 l)resence of any one 

 of them by the noisy 

 and alarmed behaviour 

 of what small birds 

 there may happen to 

 be in the vicinity. If 

 the Hawk be a Kes- 

 trel, it may soon be 

 identified by its 

 jieculiar though beau- 

 tifully distinctive 

 habit of hovering over 

 open ground in its 

 search for field mice 

 and voles, which form 

 its staple diet. The 

 keen eye of a Hawk 

 is proverbial, and 

 rightly so, for it is so 

 wonderfully contrived as to be equally use- 

 ful for near and far sight. When, then, 

 the hovering Kestrel (about twice the 

 size of a Thrush), poised on motionless 

 or rapidly pulsating wings and expanded 

 tail, has located a mouse in the herbage 

 below, it noiselessly drops like a bolt 

 from the blue, clutches the prey in its 

 talons, and either proceeds to devour it 

 on the spot or carries it away in its talons. 

 In early spring the loud and pene- 

 trating call-note, or rather ringing cry, 

 " Kli-kli-kli," frequently betrays the pre- 

 sence of the " Windhover " ; and when 

 once this note has been identified ft 

 cannot well be mistaken for that of any 

 other bird. Ivv-clad ruins, church towers, 

 dilapidated windmills and tall trees — 

 especially in the neighbourhood of a 



