THE WINDHOVER HAWK. 259 



vices, they would vie with each other in offering 

 him a safe retreat. He may be said to live almost 

 entirely on mice ; and mice, you know, are not the 

 friends of man ; for they bring desolation to the 

 bee-hive, destruction to the pea-bed, and spoliation 

 to the corn-stack. Add to this^ they are extremely 

 injurious to the planter of trees. The year 1815 

 was memorable, in this part of the county of York, 

 for swarms of field-mice exceeding all belief. Some 

 eight years before this, I had planted two acres of 

 ground with oaks and larches in alternate rows. 

 Scarcely any of the oaks put forth their buds in the 

 spring of 1816 ; and, on my examining them,, in 

 order to learn the cause of their failure, I found the 

 bark entirely gnawed away under the grass, quite 

 close to the earth, whilst the grass itself, in all 

 directions^ was literally honeycombed with holes, 

 which the mice had made. In addition to the bark 

 of young oaks, mice are extremely fond of that of 

 the holly tree : I have hollies which yet bear the 

 marks of having been materially injured by the 

 mice in winter. Apple trees, when placed in hedge- 

 rows, are often attacked by mice, and^ in many 

 cases, are much injured by them. I prize the ser- 

 vices of the windhover hawk, which are manifest 

 by the quantity of mice which he destroys ; and I 

 do ail in my power to put this pretty bird on a good 

 footing with the gamekeepers and sportsmen of our 

 neighbourhood. Were this bird properly protected, 

 it would repay our kindness with interest ; and we 

 should then have the windhover by day, and the 

 s 2 



