342 Banffshire Fauna. [APPENDIX. 
erably higher, and was followed only by this single opponent, who 
returned with redoubled fury to the combat. Up, up they soar, 
fighting as they go. They close, they scream, they grapple, and 
their feathers fly like dust. Down they come, locked in deadly 
embrace. I run to catch them both. But no! See! they part, 
mount again and again, scream, close, and, as before, fall, but not 
this time to the earth; they part and mount again. But ’tis now 
their last time; for the hawk, rising several yards above his bold 
and venturous antagonist, rushes down upon him with a yell, 
such as hawks alone, when irritated, know how to utter, and with 
such force that both fell right down into the sea, above which 
they were then fighting. I looked to see them rise again, but 
they did not. After a little splashing, all was over with the crow, 
but not with the hawk: he was still alive, although in a very 
precarious situation, from which he made several unsuccessful 
attempts to rise, but could not. It would seem that in dealing 
the death-blow to his tormentor he somehow or other got himself 
entangled, perhaps by his talons entering some of the bones of 
the crow, from whence he could not extract them. Both met 
with a watery grave, for on my leaving the place they were both 
fast drifting seaward, a breeze blowing off the land at the time, 
with the crows hovering over them and still cawing. 
Faco wisus [The Sparrow-hawk]. 
This is another daring individual. When standing on our links 
not long since, and speaking to one of our keepers, something 
struck me on the breast and fell to the ground. Instantly, and 
like a flash of lightning, down rushed a sparrow-hawk, and picked 
up a thrush from betwixt us; it rose with its booty, and was out 
of sight before we could raise our guns to fire at it. The keeper 
grumbled a great deal at our seeming stupidity. 
Fatco tinnuncuus [The Kestrel]. 
This mouse, insect, and caterpillar eating bird —or hawk, if you 
will—is very common with us. When a boy, I kept, among a 
host of others, several of this species. I remember that when 
a mouse, a young rabbit, a leveret, and a middle-sized rat were 
presented at the same time, either of the former was sure to be 
pounced upon, while the latter usually lay unheeded. Since then, 
during my thirty years of taxidermal practice, I have often dis- 
sected this bird, and found in its stomach the remains principally 
of the smaller quadrupeds, insects (chiefly beetles), and caterpil- 
lars. Yet this poor bird is persecuted with as much severity as 
birds of the most destructive kind, 
