168 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
immediately pursued by the blue liawk known by the name of 
the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung 
a second and a third in the same field, that got away in the same 
manner ; the hawk hovering round him all the while that he 
was beating the field, conscious no doubt of the game that lurked 
in the stubble. Hence w^e may conclude that this bird of prey 
was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks 
cannot always seize their game when they please. AVe may 
farther observe, that they cannot pounce on their quarry on the 
ground, where it might be able to make a stout resistance, since 
so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the 
piercing eye of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence 
tliat propensity of cowering and squatting till they are almost 
trod on, which no doubt was intc^ided as a mode of security ; 
though long rendered destructive to the whole race of Gallium 
by the invention of nets and guns.] 
When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizon- 
tally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when 
in motion, bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 
Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt wdth their wings in 
breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a 
very piping plaintive noise. 
Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume 
their notes again in September; as the thrush, blackbird, 
woodlark, willows-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the 
most mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. 
f 
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