HAWKING-BIRDS. 
bushy hedge that was planted on the margin, and which sent 
out long streamers of bramble, that had taken root here and 
there down the rock, and overhung the road in thick clusters. 
This was an admirable locality for the sand-martins, who had 
taken up their abode in great numbers, and had quite honey- 
combed the rock with their nest-tunnels. It was a beautiful 
; summer’s day, and the martins were flying about as thick as 
i gnats under a tree, filling the air with their weak but musical 
little chirp, and glancing in the sun like white butterflies. 
“ Presently their chirps ceased, the martins all disappeared, 
and a singular hubbub began on the opposite side of the hedge. 
The tumult increased, and in a few minutes a sparrow-hawk 
I came near the hedge, and flew down the lane, accompanied and 
I surrounded by a perfect cloud of martins, who were screaming 
I with all the power of their throat, dashing by him and striking 
I him with them wings as they passed. The hawk was appa- 
rently quite bewildered by this treatment, turned round, and ! 
flew back again, followed by the martins, still buffeting him, 
and screaming triumphantly. 
“ Suddenly there was a dead silence, all the martins scat- 
I tered off on every side, like the sparks from a catherine-wheel, i 
shrieking with fear, not with truimph. And then I saw the 
| hawk quietly sailing away, carrying in his claws a wretched 
little martin, who was vainly screaming for help from his 
terrified friends. The hawk sailed up high in the air, and 
disappeared with his prey behind the same hedge from which 
I he had come, and I saw no more of him.” 
The perseverance with which the sparrow-hawk will pursue 
its prey is remarkable. The following, communicated by a 
correspondent living in the North of England, is of sufficient 
interest to present it to the reader : — “ While taking a walk i 
through a meadow adjacent to my residence, my attention 
| was suddenly attracted to two objects some height in the air, j 
about a dozen yards distant from me. Presently I dis- 
i covered them to be a poor little linnet closely pursued by a 
sparrow-hawk. I shouted at the top of my voice to frighten | 
| the hawk from its victim, but without success. In a few 
minutes, after a long chase, the linnet made all sail for the 
j land, and the sparrow-hawk redoubled its efforts to strike at 
| it. With one fell swoop the linnet dropped at my feet, the hawk 
j following it within an arm’s length of my stick, which I raised 
| to keep it off. The poor little bird was quite dead ; the last 
great effort to escape had been too much for its strength, and 
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