SANDPIPER AND SPARROW-HAWK. 53 



fed it the creature showed fight in its feeble fashion. 

 By degrees it gained strength, and, although it 

 was carried about and well treated, the bird was 

 never at ease or at rest, the wildness of its nature 

 always asserting itself. Sometimes from a state 

 of perfect indifference it would suddenly pass — 

 though I could never see cause for this — into the 

 opposite extreme, and shriek in its excitement like 

 some mad thing. One morning I found the poor 

 bird dead at the foot of his perch ; no doubt an 

 outburst of temper was mainly the cause of this. 

 It is difficult to detect a sparrow - hawk when 

 he sits upright on a limb close to the trunk of 

 some tree, the tones of which blend closely with 

 his plumage. Any number of young squirrels get 

 whipped off the slender branches just when they 

 are beginning to run about. The birds hunt 

 rather late, and frequently he will come driving 

 through a flock just as they are about to settle 

 for the night. His own young are well provided 

 for ; finches form a considerable portion of their 

 food, with blackbirds and thrushes at intervals, 

 and young pheasants and partridges occasionally, 

 if they can be got. But the finch tribe, in quest 



