THE WINDHOVER HAWK. 
257 
trouble to step in. I am a match for old Sally now, 
and she can't do me any more harm, so long as the 
wiggin branches hang in the place where I have 
nailed them. My poor cow will get well in spite of 
her." Alasl thought I to myself, as the deluded 
man was finishing his story, how much there is yet 
to be done in our part of the country by the school- 
master of the nineteenth century ! 
NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE WINDHOVER 
HAWK. 
Nothing can be more unfortunate for a man, than 
to bear a strong resemblance to another who is 
notorious for his evil deeds. The public eye marks 
him as he passes on, and tacitly condemns him for 
misdemeanours of which he is, probably, as inno- 
cent as the lamb which gambols on the lawn. This 
may be applied with great truth to the windhover 
hawk. He is perpetually confounded with the spar- 
rowhawk, and too often doomed to suffer for the 
predatory attacks of that bird on the property of 
man. But when your gun has brought the poor 
windhover to the ground, look, I pray you, into the 
contents of his stomach ; you will find nothing there 
to show that his life ought to be forfeited. On 
the contrary, the remnants of the beetle and the 
field mouse which will attract your notice, prove in- 
disputably, that his visits to your farm have been 
of real service to it. 
S 
