140 BUZZARDS, KITES, HAWKS, ETC. 



much by swift flying, as by tbe following stratagem : 

 when he finds a covey, and springs them, he flies after 

 them as fast as he is able, and continues keeping them 

 on the wing till they are too much exhausted to be able 

 to make their escape. 



The small ring-tailed hawk is the largest of the 

 sparrow-hawk kind, and is a very fierce and perniaious 

 bird, destroying chickens and young ducks, in yards, &c., 

 about farm-houses. In the fields, it kills blackbirds 

 and thrushes ; and in the winter season, fieldfares and 

 other small birds fall a prey to it. 



The sparrow-hawk is seldom known to destroy 

 chickens or any other kind of poultry, unless driven 

 by the greatest extremity of hunger ; birds which fly 

 wild in the fields are chiefly the prey of this little 

 hawk. It may be caught in the same way as the 

 others. 



Ravens and crows you may take best by laying a 

 joint of flesh in the centre of two furrows, drawn across 

 each other, in the middle of a field. Plant the traps, 

 one about four inches from the bait, another about a 

 yard ; as they walk up the furrows they will be taken. 

 Single wire springes laid in the furrows, with one side 

 turned up a little, will take them by the legs. Eggs 

 dropped singly about the land, with two or three clods 

 set up to plant traps between ; or half an egg-shell 

 stuck on the bridge of a trap, with moist clay, and put 

 just under water, at the edges of ponds ; or^one put in 

 a three-fanged stick, and set up in the water with the 



