118 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
they find them ata disadvantage, a method not unpractised by 
the Sparrowhawk ; but they have to take their chance of securing 
healthy or sickly birds as the case may be. The Peregrine, so 
far from selecting the youngest or weakest bird in a covey 
(apparently the easiest to catch), will often knock down the 
leader at a distance, perhaps a fine old cock bird. We have 
repeatedly seen a Falcon ignore a young Grouse directly under 
her, and stoop with success at a fast-flying bird much further 
away from her; the inevitable conclusion being that there is no 
need for such an hypothesis as that of taking the weakest, 
for the power of wing in a Falcon is such as to place any quarry 
that may be selected at a disadvantage, unless by throwing itself 
headlong into the heather, bracken, or other cover, as a Grouse 
often does, it contrives to avoid the fatal stoop. 
While on the subject of Hawks, we may remark that the 
description given of the plumage of the Merlin (p. 32) is insuffi- 
cient ‘‘ to enable the young naturalist to identify” this bird, since 
it applies only to the adult male; and the majority of Merlins 
procured in this country are in the very different plumage of 
immaturity. 
Glancing at the chapters on Game-birds, the account given of 
the Capercaillie (pp. 151-154) strikes us as being quite inadequate 
after the exhaustive treatise on this bird published by Mr. Harvie 
Brown,* which was reviewed in this journal in 1879 (p. 468), and 
of which no mention is made by Mr. Dixon. Had he referred to 
this source of information he would have discovered that so far 
from having to go back 400 years to find the Capercaillie common 
in the pine forests of Scotland, the date of its extinction may be 
fixed no longer ago than 1760, and that of its re-introduction, 
1836. 
In the chapter on the Red-legged Partridge (pp. 165-169) 
there are several statements open to criticism. “ This bird,” says 
Mr. Dixon, “is not indigenous to this country, but was introduced 
here like the Pheasant, so long ago that we have quite got to look 
upon it as a bird of the southern fields.” But the two birds are 
not to be placed upon the same footing, for the Pheasant was 
introduced by the Romans, while the Red-legged Partridge was 
not acclimatized here until the latter half of the last century. 

* «The Capercaillie in Scotland.’ By J. A. Harvie Brown. 8vo, pp 160. 
Edinburgh: Douglas. 1879, 
