ANECDOTES AND ADVENTURES 279 



not held, but projected forwards and downwards about three 

 feet to the ground ; and before he could get up again the other 

 hawk was on him. 



I was flying the same hawk in a very big stubble-field. A 

 lark got up — a ground lark, but a fast one — and away they 

 went, zigzagging along the surface of the field. They had 

 gone a long way, but not far enough to be out of sight, when 

 they both suddenly vanished. Running up, I found a deep 

 depression in the ground, where years ago a big pit had been 

 dug. This accounted for the disappearance. But what had 

 happened after that ? If the lark had been taken, where was 

 he ? And where was his captor ? A small heap of dry sticks 

 at the bottom of the hollow was searched in vain. There 

 seemed to be no other hiding-place. At length a tiny hole 

 was seen — the mouth of a rabbit-burrow. And out of this, in 

 another half-minute, emerged the little hawk. The lark had 

 gone in, and she after it, but after some groping about in the 

 dark had failed to find the wily fugitive. 



Only a few days afterwards the sister of this hawk started 

 after a first-rate ringing lark. Both of them went out of sight, 

 drifting at a great height towards a village a mile off. We ran 

 towards it at our best pace, fearing some disaster ; but when 

 half-way to it saw the hawk coming back to the lure. Well, 

 we were glad enough that she had not killed in any cottage 

 garden, and, taking her back up-wind, went on with the day's 

 programme. As it was getting dark we had to walk through 

 the same village on the way home. " Did you find your 'awk ? " 

 asked a cottager. " What hawk ? " " Why, one of your 'awks 

 chased a lark into the passage o' th' public there, and would a' 

 caught 'im too, only there was a cat in the passage up and 

 grabbed the lark before the 'awk was on 'im ; and the 'awk 

 looked as savage as thunder, and 'ooked it out, and went over 

 there where you come from." 



Bee Cottage stands desolate in a very big valley, with hills 

 sloping gradually down to it on almost all sides. A ringing 

 lark, with a merlin close at his heels, got within reach of this 

 shelter from above the hillside to windward, and shot down to 

 it like a bullet, with the hawk a few yards behind. It was too 

 far to see from the hillside where, but he put in somewhere on 

 the premises. A diligent search, however, in hedge, bush; coal- 

 shed, and everywhere, led to no result. The door was shut and 

 locked : so were the windows. No one seemed to have lived in 

 the place for months. More searching, without any sign of lark 



