THE WINDHOVER HAWK. 259 



vices, they would vie with each other in offering 

 him a safe retreat. He may be said to live almost 

 entirely on mice ; and mice, you know ; are not the 

 friends of man; for they bring desolation to the 

 bee-hive, destruction to the pea-bed, and spoliation 

 to the corn-stack. Add to this, they are extremely 

 injurious to the planter of trees. The year 1815 

 was memorable, in this part of the county of York, 

 for swarms of field-mice exceeding all belief. Some 

 eight years before this, I had planted two acres of 

 ground with oaks and larches in alternate rows. 

 Scarcely any of the oaks put forth their buds in the 

 spring of 1816; and, on my examining them, in 

 order to learn the cause of their failure, I found the 

 bark entirely gnawed away under the grass, quite 

 close to the earth, whilst the grass itself, in all 

 directions, was literally honeycombed with holes, 

 which the mice had made. In addition to the bark 

 of young oaks, mice are extremely fond of that of 

 the holly tree : I have hollies which yet bear the 

 marks of having been materially injured by the 

 mice in winter. Apple trees, when placed in hedge- 

 rows, are often attacked by mice, and, in many 

 cases, are much injured by them, I prize the ser- 

 vices of the windhover hawk, which are manifest 

 by the quantity of mice which he destroys; and I 

 do all in my power to put this pretty bird on a good 

 footing with the gamekeepers and sportsmen of our 

 neighbourhood. Were this bird properly protected, 

 it would repay our kindness with interest ; and we 

 should then have the windhover by day, and the 

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