BIRDS. 331 



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 GaMince by the 

 invention of nets and guns. 1 



GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON. 

 As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer Forest 

 from Bramshot across the moors, he found a large un- 

 common bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, 



1 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 [the female hen-harrier. ED.] 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 par- 

 tridges 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 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 approaching 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 indistinctly, 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. 



