Wild Birds Usefid and Injurious. 
665 
stone, on which to pluck its victim. When not engaged in the 
pursuit of its prey its movements are different. It crosses the 
country by giving a few strokes of its wings, and then gliding 
through the air for several yards with the impetus thus acquired. 
This manner of flight is characteristic, and is suflficient to 
identify the bird at a considerable distance. Sometimes also 
it indulges in a stately circling flight, not unlike that of the 
kestrel. 
The favourite food of the male a]ipears to be the blackbird, 
though small birds of any kind are readily taken. The hen is 
much stronger and flies at larger . quarry, such as wood-pigeons, 
jays, partridges, young pheasants, and teal. The sparrow-hawk 
is a most dangerous foe both to game and poultry ; and the 
legs of the many victims, in and around a nest which has con- 
tained its young, tell only too plainly of the havoc which it has 
committed. In addition to the food already mentioned, mice, 
young rabbits, weasels, and large insects are also known to form 
part of its diet. 
A certain amount of good must therefore be placed to the 
credit of the sparrow-hawk. It devours many injurious insects, 
and one has been seen on the grass catching the destructive 
crane-flies or daddy-longlegs. It destroys wood-pigeons and 
many other mischievous species, and is one of the most efficient 
means of keeping the numbers of small birds within bounds. 
Moreover, its presence has a most beneficial effect on the crowds 
of unwelcome visitors which frequent the ripening corn. 
There is no gi-eat difficulty in destroying a brood of these 
hawks, if it is thought necessary to do so. An occupied nest is 
generally betrayed by small fragments of down from the parent 
bird adhering to the branches of the tree in which it is placed ; 
and the young, when fledged, are very noisy, their wailing cries 
for food frequently leading to their discovery. 
The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), one of the hand- 
somest and most high-spirited of its race, is now so rare that 
only a few lines need be devoted to it. It must not, however, be 
passed over in silence, because it is — or would be if not so per- 
secuted — a valuable ally of the farmer in keeping down the 
numbers of wood-pigeons. It kills and eats quantities of these 
voracious birds ; and Professor Newton states that, in a locality 
where partridges and stock-doves were both plentiful, one of 
these powerful hawks habitually took the pigeons instead of the 
game birds, notwithstanding the more rapid flight of the 
former. 
Other items in its bill of fare are grouse, blackgame, 
pheasants, wild-ducks, teal, landrails, moorhens, gulls, guille- 
