58 
FALCO SPAEVERIUS. 
It flies rather irregularly, occasionally suspending^ 
in the air, hovering over a particular spot for a in''* “I, 
or tn-o, and then shooting off in another direction. . 
perches on the top of a dead tree or pole, in the mid® ^ 
of a field or meadow, and, as it alights, shuts its 1"!'^ 
wings so suddenly, tliat they seem instantly to 
appear; it .sits here in an almost perpendicular posit''I''j 
sometimes for an hour at a time, frerpiently jerkins-' 
tail, and reconnoitring the g-round hclow, in every dir®‘| 
tion, for mice, lizards, &c. It approaches the farni-ho'"®’ 
particularly in the morning, skulking about the 
yard for mice or young chickens. It i'rerpiently pl""r'’! 
into a thicket after small birds, as if hv random ; 
always with a particular, and g'enerally n ith a 1"*‘ j 
aim. One day I observed a bird of this species pe''t^'f|, 
on the highest top of a large poplar, on the skirts ot 
wood, and was in the act of raising the gun to my 
when he swept doivn ivith the rapidity of an arrow, '‘’^j 
a thicket of briars, about thirty yards off, where I 
him dead, and, on coining up, found a small field spa''''® ^ 
quivering in his grasp. Both our aims had been tab® 
at the same instant, and, unfortunately for him, I"® 
were fatal. It is jiarticularly fond of ‘watching I'l®'!: 
hedge-rows, and in orch.ards, where small birds usual*;’ 
resort. When grasshojipers are plenty, they for"' 
considerable part of its food. 
Though small snake.s, mice, lizards, &c. bo tavouri*^ 
morsels with this active bird, yet we are not to supl'®?|| 
it altogether destitute of delicacy in feeding. It '’ a’ 
seldom or never eat of any thing' that it h.as not 
killed, and ei eu that, if not (as ejiicures would teri"’'^. 
in good entinp ordar, is sometimes rejected. A 
respectable friend, through the medium of Mr Bart''a’,j’ 
informs me, that one morning he observed one of 
hawks dart down on the ground, and seize a W’"’;! 
which he carried lo a fence post, n hero, after 
ning it for some time, he left it, and, a little while j 
pounced tqion another mouse, which he instantlv 
off to his nest, in the holloiv of a tree hard by. ® .J 
gentleman, anxious to know why the han k had reje®!*' 
