98 
The Naturalist in La Plata. 
ground, one of these hawks has placed himself 
directly over my head, within fifteen or twenty 
yards of me ; and it has perhaps acquired the habit 
of following a horseman in this wmy in order to 
strike at any birds driven up. On one occasion 
my horse almost trod on a couple of snipe squatting 
terrified in the short grass. The instant they rose 
the haw’-k struck at one, the end of his wing violently 
smiting my cheek as he stooped, and striking at 
the snipe on a level with the knees of my horse. 
The snipe escaped by diving under the bridle, and 
immediately dropped down on the other side of me, 
and the hawdv, rising up, flew away. 
To return. I think I am justified in believing that 
fear of hawks, like fear of men, is, in very nearly 
all cases, the result of experience and tradition. 
IVevertheless, I think it probable that in some 
species which have always lived in the open, con- 
tinually exposed to attack, and which are preferred 
as food by raptors, such as duck, snipe, and 
plover, the fear of the falcon may be an inherited 
habit. Among passerine birds I am also inclined 
to think that swallows show inherited fear of hawks. 
Swallows and humming-birds have least to fear 
from ' raptors ; yet, while humming-birds readily 
pursue and tease hawks, thinking as little of them 
as of pigeons or herons, swallows everyw^here mani- 
fest the greatest terror at the approach of a true 
falcon ; and they also fear other birds of prey, 
though in a much less degree. It has been said 
that the European hobby occasionally catches swal- 
lows on the wing, but this seems a rare and ex- 
ceptional habit, and in South America I have 
