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father's gamekeeper, who told me that it followed his pointer dog, as he was Partridge-shooting, 

 for a considerable distance, and kept stooping and striking the dog till he was quite disgusted, 

 and came in to heel." 



Mr. C. E. Diezel (' Naumannia,' 1856, p. 260) relates a curious instance of the sagacity of 

 this Falcon : — 



" In the Seegwald stood a large beech tree, on which was a very large old nest, which, 

 although the old birds were regularly shot for eight years, either when the nest contained eggs 

 or when feeding their young, was still tenanted again. One year, when, as the birds were so shy, 

 they could not be approached within gunshot, the forester and a companion took turn about 

 to watch the nest, which then contained young, in order to shoot the parent birds as they 

 came with food. The old birds never came within shot, and still the young were not 

 starved. After a time, however, the watchers discovered that the old birds took food and, 

 hovering far out of gunshot above the nest, dropped it down into the latter, thus feeding the 

 young without danger to themselves. That this really was the case, was proved by keeping a 

 careful and continuous watch ; and moreover food was found under the tree which had in falling 

 missed its mark." 



An instance of the courage of the Hobby in defence of its nest has been already given by 

 Sharpe in his ' Birds of Cookham,' from which we extract the following : — 



" When at Billing-bear, Mr. Briggs had a nest of this species in one of the plantations 

 on the estate, and only waited till the young ones were fledged, to take them. Accordingly he 

 mounted to the nest, and was immediately greeted with loud cries from the young birds. The 

 male Hobby, hearing the screams of the nestlings, sailed over to the spot, and surveyed the 

 scene of action from a considerable height. Suddenly, as Mr. Briggs was preparing to descend 

 with his captives, the bird darted clown from above with immense velocity, his wings cleaving 

 the air with a loud lohish-sh-sh as he shot down to within a foot of the intruder's head, and 

 then, carried up by the impetus of his descent, he mounted as swiftly as he had stooped, and 

 only paused a second ere he recommenced the attack. This was renewed in quick succession as 

 Mr. Briggs descended, causing in his mind no small apprehension lest the courageous bird should 

 strike at his face. Having reached the ground in safety, and wishing to obtain the old Hawk, he 

 carried the young into the middle of a neighbouring field, and, having made them scream, stood 

 ready with his gun. No sooner did the parent bird hear the young cry, than he again appeared, 

 and from an immense height swooped at Mr. Briggs with the same astonishing velocity that had 

 characterized his former descents. So sudden was the attack that there was no time to fire, and 

 the bird ascended again like lightning. Would that I could now add that the Hobby escaped ; 

 but, alas ! love for its nestlings impelled him to make one more stoop, and, in the midst of his 

 next descent, the gun was fired, and the poor Hobby fell dead to the earth." 



The following interesting anecdote of its courage is given by Mr. Stevenson in the ' Birds 

 of Norfolk':— 



" A pair of these birds were observed to frequent a wood at Hockering ; and, doomed by the 

 very name of ' Hawk,' the male soon fell a victim to the keeper's gun. A second and a third 

 time the female returned with a fresh mate, but only to share the fate of its predecessors ; still 

 she managed herself to escape all dangers, and, undaunted by her repeated losses, returned with 



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