98 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



pick up the pigeon. I relate the following account 

 of an extraordinary coincidence, in the hope of 

 helping the sparrow-hawk to make a name as a bird 

 of omen. Just as I had entered a disused cattle- 

 shed, into which I had not been for years and years, 

 a pigeon flew in with a sparrow-hawk in close 

 pursuit. The very same thing had occurred, I 

 remembered, many years before, the last time I 

 had shot with a man, just as we had entered this 

 shed for lunch. I reached home to find that a 

 telegram had been received announcing the man's 

 death abroad. 



I must confess that I was once badly hoaxed by a 

 brood of sparrow-hawks that were just able to sit 

 about on the branches of a larch-tree, in which 

 was their nest. My ears caught a sound of distant 

 mewing coming from a certain part of a big wood, 

 and, having my gun with me, I proceeded to in- 

 vestigate. There was no doubt that I was getting 

 nearer and nearer to the mewing, and at last I felt 

 certain I was within ten yards of the cause, which 

 I never dreamt was other than kittens. But I could 

 see neither kittens nor any sign of them. I almost 

 had persuaded myself that there was something in 

 the ghost theory, and that perhaps the cats, whose 

 blood was on my head, had conspired together 

 against me. But there was a flutter above, and, 

 peering through the canopy of hazel-leaves, I beheld 

 the six young sparrow-hawks which had mocked me. 



