152 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



The goshawk also destroys immense numbers of passenger- 

 pigeons, as well as the different varieties of ducks, such as mal- 

 lards, teal, black-duck, &c. Audubon mentions having seen this 

 hawk strike and carry off all these fowl, and we imagine that 

 almost every sportsman must be familiar with their extreme bold- 

 ness and daring. After seizing mallards, they turn them belly 

 upwards and eat the flesh off their breasts, disdaining all other less 

 tender and juicy parts of the body when food is so plentiful. 



The sparrowhawk is also a most outrageous poacher upon all 

 kinds of birds, and, being extremely dainty in his taste and habits, 

 we doubt not that he also destroys numbers of young partridges, 

 if not the old ones. We have over and over again witnessed him 

 in the act of carrying off smaller birds. 



Sportsmen should never fail to kill these birds of prey whenever 

 met with, as they answer no particular good purpose, and often 

 materially interfere with their recreations. It is no uncommon 

 thing for a hawk, in severe weather, to linger about the haunts of 

 a covey of birds for several days together, picking off one or two 

 whenever a suitable opportunity presents, until the whole covey 

 is destroyed. 



PREDICTIONS REGARDING GAME. 



An observant sportsman will, or rather should, be able to pre- 

 dict, with some degree of certainty, the probable abundance or 

 scarcity of game, according to the mildness or severity of the 

 previous winter, the dryness or wetness of the spring, and the 

 many other concomitant circumstances which influence the habits 

 of game-birds in different localities. 



HAUNTS OF PARTRIDGES. 



If the day be fine and clear, the birds will be found on the 

 wing at a very early hour ; if, on the other hand, it be wet and 

 cold, they seem very loath to leave their roosting-places, delaying 

 their flights as long as possible, even until the day is far advanced. 

 And if rain should set in, they will most generally desert the 



