116 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xm. 



scaring its prey badly, but making no attempt to kill one, 

 and returning at once to perch. I was extremely lucky on 

 the evening of August 26th, 1918, to witness a cock Sparrow- 

 Hawk playing with a large rabbit in this way. 



The Hawk had, in my opinion, just fed, and was sunning 

 itself on a low, bare branch of a spruce on the side of a 

 wood. Fifty 3'ards away was a similar bare branch of an 

 elm. There was no fence round the wood, but a wide, deep 

 ditch, which had recently been " mudded out " into the wood 

 in large heaps, and the outside of the mounds was quite dry. 

 While the Hawk was sunning, a rabbit came and sat up on 

 the top of a mound about half-way between the trees. Down 

 swept the Hawk at once, and the rabbit flattened itself almost 

 into the ground as the Hawk passed and then leapt some two 

 feet into the air and sat up again ; the Hawk alighted on 

 the elm branch. Then it turned and swept back over the 

 rabbit to the spruce, with the same motions by both. This 

 happened several times before I was spied, but I had seen 

 enough to be sure of one thing, and that was that the Hawk 

 never dropped its foot, i.e., it never struck or intended to strike 

 at the rabbit, but was merely playing. The bird was sunning 

 itself when the sun had lost its power, about three-quarters 

 of an hour before setting. Two evenings later I had time to 

 revisit the same spot and made a long detour to get to a point 

 whence I could view the same spot unseen, but there was 

 no Hawk on either perch. After waiting a while I got over 

 a fence into the field adjoining the wood and, just as I got 

 clear of the fence (which ran to the right from the wood), 

 a hen Hawk left a sunning branch in an oak not far from the 

 fence and swept down towards the ground away from me. 

 Out of the aftermath a Partridge jumped up at the Hawk, 

 which swerved up and back to the perch ; this happened 

 three times, and then the old Partridge flew away with some 

 of the brood. Then the Hawk swept down again at the rest, 

 which were running for the fence and just got off the ground 

 as the Hawk got over them. The Hawk passed over one, 

 almost touching it, and all the birds dropped into the grass 

 again. This happened at least twice more before the Part- 

 ridges gained the fence. Yet the Hawk never once attempted 

 to seize the bird, but was obviously merely playing. 



These instances both took place in the evening : I have 

 seen others of a similar nature in the mid-day sun, but not 

 with mammals. 



Of preening in the sun at the nest T have written before. 

 As or pteening at other times, birds seem to vary very 

 considerably, but not many of them will select a site in 



