288 HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



Thus, when I see the windhover hawk, hanging 

 in the air on fluttering wing, although it be at broad 

 noon-day, I am quite certain that there is a mouse 

 below, just on the point of leaving its hole for a 

 short excursion : and then I thank him kindly, for 

 his many services to the gardener and the hus- 

 bandman ; and I tell him, that he shall always have 

 a friend and a protector in me. Again, when I ob- 

 serve the carrion crow, in the month of May, sailing 

 over the meadows with the sagacity of a spaniel ; 

 I know at once, that, somewhere or other, she has 

 a nest of hungry little ones to provide for ; and that 

 she is on the look-out for eggs, or for young birds, 

 to supply their wants : and then I tell her I feel 

 sorry from my heart, that the pressing duty of pro- 

 viding for a large and ravenous family should ex- 

 pose her to the eternal enmity of man ; knowing full 

 well that, at other seasons of the year, she is a real 

 benefactress to him, by clearing his fields of a world 

 of insects, which feed upon their produce. 



For reasons unknown to us, the birds are parti- 

 cularly vociferous, both at early dawn, and at the 

 fall of night. But when I hear the partridge utter- 

 ing its well-known call in the middle of the day, I 

 comprehend at once, that it either sees bad company 

 close at hand, in the shape of cats or weasels, or 

 that its brood has been surprised and dispersed by 

 some intruder; and that the individuals of the 

 covey are then calling to each other, from the 

 place of their retreat, in order that they may all 

 meet again in some more secure and more shel- 

 tered quarter. 



