HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 309 



perfectly sound, and show no appearance that the 

 worm has ever tried to feed upon them. 



I have penned down these transient remarks by 

 way of preface to others, which I may possibly 

 write, at some future time, on decay in living 

 trees. 



HINTS TO ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



Most men have some favourite pursuit — some 

 well-trained hobby, which they have ridden from 

 the days of their youth. Mine is ornithology ; and 

 when the vexations of the world have broken in 

 upon me, I mount it, and go away for an hour or 

 two, amongst the birds of the valley ; and I seldom 

 fail to return with better feelings than when I first 

 set out. He who has made it his study to become 

 acquainted with the habits of the feathered tribes, 

 will be able to understand their various movements 

 almost as well as though they had actually related 

 their own adventures to him. 



Thus, when I see the windhover hawk, hanging 

 in the air on fluttering wing, although it be at broad 

 noonday, I am quite certain that there is a mouse 

 below, just on the point of leaving its hole for a 

 short excursion : and then 1 thank him kindly, for 

 his many services to the gardener and the hus- 

 bandman ; and I tell him, that he shall always have 

 a friend and a protector in me. Again, when I ob-^ 

 serve the carrion crow, in the month of May, sailing 

 over the meadows with the sagacity of a spaniel ; 

 X 3 



