OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 277 



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 ; particularly, 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 pur- 

 suit 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 round my land without 

 any gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my heels. When I came 

 near the field where I wounded the bird the evening before, I heard the 

 partridges call, and seeming to be much disturbed. On my approach- 

 ing the bar-way, they all rose, some on my right, and some on my left 

 hand ; and just before and over my head, I perceived (though indis- 

 tinctly from the extreme velocity of their motion) two birds fly directly 

 against each other, when instantly, to my great astonishment, down 

 dropped a partridge at my feet ; the dog immediately seized it, and on 

 examination, I found the blood flow very fast from a fresh wound in 

 the head, but there was some dry clotted blood on its wings and side ; 

 whence I concluded that a hawk had singled out my wounded bird as 

 the object of his prey, and had struck it down the instant that my 

 approach had obliged the birds to rise on the wing; but the space 

 between the hedges was so small, and the motion of the birds so 

 instantaneous and quick, that I could not distinctly observe the 

 operation. MARKWICK. 



GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOOK 



As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest from Bram- 

 shot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering in 

 the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On 

 examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis, Linn., the great 

 speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently described in 

 Willughby's Ornithology. 



Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably adapted 

 to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom of God 

 in the creation to more advantage. The head is sharp and smaller than 

 the part of the neck adjoining, in order that it may pierce the water ; 

 the wings are placed forward, and out of the centre of gravity, for a 

 purpose which shall be noticed hereafter ; the thighs quite at the podex, 

 in order to facilitate diving; and the legs are flat, and as sharp 



