168 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



along the path ten minutes after, I found that all those 

 sparrows were still hid under the bushes by the ditch- 

 side, close to tbe ground, and I saw nothing of them 

 till I scared them out by going within two or three feet. 

 No doubt they warned each other by a peculiar note. 

 What a corsair the hawk is to them ! — a little fellow 

 hardly bigger than a quail. 



Feb. 29, 1856. [Minott] told again of the partridge 

 hawk striking down a partridge which rose before him 

 and flew across the run in the beech woods, — how 

 suddenly he did it, — and he, hearing the fluttering of 

 the partridge, came up and secured it, while the hawk 

 kept out of gunshot. 



Sept. 27, 1857. As I sit there I see the shadow of a 

 hawk flying above and behind me. I think I see more 

 hawks nowadays. Perhaps it is both because the young 

 are grown and their food, the small birds, are flying 

 in flocks and are abundant. I need only sit still a few 

 minutes on any spot which overlooks the river meadows, 

 before I see some black circling mote beating along, 

 circling along the meadow's edge, now lost for a mo- 

 ment as it turns edgewise in a peculiar light, now re- 

 appearing further or nearer. 



[/See also under Wild Goose, p. 59 ; Fish Hawk, pp. 

 150, 151; General and Miscellaneous, pp. 409, 412.] 



