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 all 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 
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