2 



EAGLE-SHOOTING IN THE ALPS. 



verbial principle that " wealth makes wit waver." But whether this 

 be the true cause or not, it is certain that the cuckoo, which, on the 

 wing, bears considerable resemblance to a hawk, is usually accom- 

 panied by a similar retinue of small birds wherever it flies. In the North 

 this is so commonly observed, that the cuckoo is popularly believed to 

 be always attended by the titling or pippet (Anthus pratensis, Bech- 

 stein), which, it is further imagined, has been its step-mother and 

 nurse from the egg : this, indeed, is the bird whose nest the cuckoo 

 most frequently selects to deposit the eggs which she so strangely and 

 unnaturally abandons ; though it is more probable that it is not on 

 this account, but because she appears to be a hawk, that the pippet 

 and other small birds persecute her. 



I had once an opportunity of witnessing an instance of this hostility 

 towards the cuckoo, while observing the proceedings of some of the 

 bank swallows in their populous colony near Charlton in Kent. I 

 perceived a cuckoo flying quietly along, certainly meditating no harm 

 against the swallows, and not even poaching on their domain by 

 hawking for flies, inasmuch as he prefers a breakfast of caterpillars, 

 which the swallows never touch ; but the instant he appeared the 

 tocsin was sounded, and every swallow in the colony darted out of the 

 holes to pounce upon the intruder, whom they beat unmercifully, 

 with bill and wing, till they drove him from their boundaries. 



A still more general and determined hostility is manifested towards 

 every species of owl, when any of these night marauders accidentally 

 make their appearance by day, or happen to place themselves so as to 

 be observed by the passing birds. In such cases, the first bird which 

 discovers an owl, begins by peeping about at him, as if he were one of 

 the seven wonders of the world, and ends in sounding the peculiar 

 note of alarm, that appears to be understood as a universal language, 

 by all species of birds, from the wren to the eagle. This alarm note 

 has the effect of a gathering cry upon every bird within hearing, which 

 immediately troops to the muster, and after peeping, as the first ob- 

 server had done, at the poor owl, hastens to insult him in every tone 

 of defiance, and even to pounce at him, with intent to follow up the 

 preliminary threats by actual attack and buffeting. 



The peeping curiosity, staring wonder, or hostile antipathy, mani- 

 fested by all day-flying birds towards owls, is taken advantage of on 

 the Continent for several purposes, but for none more interesting than 

 that of eagle-shooting. When the goat-herds on the Alps, therefore, 

 find their flocks diminished, and the chamois-hunters find their sport 

 spoiled by the depredations of an eagle, or a lammer-geyer (Gypaetus 

 barbatus, Stork) haunting a particular district, they preparejx) lure 



