OBSEH VA TIONS ON BIRDS, 317 



saiue field, that got away in the same manner ; the hawk 

 hovering round him all the while that he was beating the 

 field, conscious, no doubt, of the game that lurked in the 

 stubble. Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey 

 was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and 

 that hawks cannot always seize their game when they 

 please. We may farther observe, that they cannot pounce 

 their quarry on the ground where it might be able to make 

 a stout resistance, since so large a fowl as a pheasant could 

 not but be visible to the piercing eye of a hawk, when 

 hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of cower- 

 ing and squatting till they are almost trod on, which no 

 doubt was intended as a mode of security, though long 

 rendered destructive to the whole race of Gallinse by the 

 invention of nets and guns. — White. 



Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey when 

 urged on by hunger I have seen several instances ; par- 

 ticularly, when shooting in the winter in company with 

 two friends, a woodcock flew across us, closely pursued by 

 a small hawk : we all three fired at the woodcock instead 

 of the hawk, which, notwithstanding the report of three 

 guns close by it, continued its pursuit of the woodcock, 

 struck it down, .and carried it off, as we afterwards 

 discovered. 



At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, 

 we saw a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large 

 bird in its claws ; though at a great distance, we both fired 

 and obliged it to drop its prey, which proved to be one of 

 the partridges which we were in pursuit of : and lastly, in 

 an evening, I shot at, and plainly saw that I had wounded, 

 a partridge, but it being late, was obliged to go home 

 without finding it again. The next morning I walked 



