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One day I saw a merlin take an old cock blackbird just as the 

 male sparrow-hawk, not much larger, habitually does. I ran up, 

 when the blackbird was released just in time, and the splendid 

 little hawk, with long acutely -pointed wings, rose like an arrow 

 from the ground. Their ordinary prey is larks and starlings. 



Occasionally a peregrine falcon would come and sojourn with 

 us for a week or two in winter, proclaiming her or his presence 

 by the remains of cushats stricken down and devoured. Such 

 a visitant was always deemed an honour. 



Over no fewer than fourteen winters, in all, we were regu- 

 larly, or all but regularly, visited by a single rough-legged 

 buzzard. It seemed to feed mainly on moles and water-rats ; 

 perhaps too on carrion. It never meddled with a pheasant, and 

 was never itself shot at, as we found it harmless. It became 

 gradually lighter in colour. • Finally it departed one spring, and 

 was not seen again. It never was accompanied by a mate. The 

 flight was stately and aquiline. Pheasants were numerous where 

 it most haunted, but evinced no fear of it, nor did it ever seem 

 to heed them or to watch their movements. 



The heron, I rejoice to say, breeds at Hedgeley on spruce firs 

 planted by myself in 1828, and has done so for these ten years 

 past, though only in some two or three nests. Thus a planter 

 has been spared to hail the heron rearing its young upon the 

 trees which he himself inserted. There is something very wonder- 

 ful in the ability of the heron to endure our winters. The stork 

 and crane betake themselves to warm latitudes with their ample 

 wings, which they move with adequate muscular power. But 

 the heron always seems to carry far too much sail for his strength. 

 If you come upon him unawares by the riverside, he is in a ter- 

 rible flurry to get away, though you have no gun, and, if you 

 had, would never seek to harm him. Wherever there is a pond 

 with frogs in it, thither will come those ubiquitous intruders, 

 the common rats, to feed on them. Thither too will come the 

 heron, for he dearly likes a frog, and next to a frog a half-grown 

 rat. Even the largest rats are very shy of him, for he strikes 

 like lightning at the back of the head or at the eye. If lie 

 haunts a pond the rats will not stay long. 



M 



