HAWKS. 
137 
animals, in defence of its young. It occurred in Yorkshire. 
In the spring, a gentleman walking in the fields saw a small 
Hawk attempting to fly off with some prey it had just 
pounced upon, hut evidently prevented by the weight of its 
capture from rising to any height above the ground. It 
was pursued by a hare, which, whenever it came within her 
reach, attacked it with her paws, and at last succeeded in 
knocking it down, when it dropped its prey. At this moment 
the gentleman ran forward, and the Hawk and its pursuer 
both made their retreat; upon his reaching the spot where the 
prey had been dropped, he found it to he a fine leveret, which 
at once explained the cause of the parent hare’s gallant attack 
on the Hawk. It was wounded on the side of the head, and 
was bleeding, hut the gentleman left it in a furrow, hoping 
that the wound might not prove fatal, and that the mother 
might find it, and reap the reward of her maternal attach- 
ment. 
It may seem extraordinary that they should presume to 
meddle with living things of their own size and weight, hut 
it is still more remarkable that they should occasionally wage 
successful warfare with birds still larger than themselves, as, 
for instance, with the Jay. Not long ago, some hoys observed 
a Hawk flying after a Jay, which, on reaching, it immediately 
attacked, and both fell on a stubble-field, where the contest 
appeared to be carried on; the hoys hastened up, but too late 
to save the poor Jay, which was at the last gasp; in the 
agonies of death, however, it had contrived to infix and 
entangle its claws so firmly in the Hawk’s feathers, that the 
latter, unable to escape, was carried off by the hoys, who 
brought it home, when, on examination, it proved to he a 
Kestrel. The Sparrow-hawk of North America (Falco spar- 
verius), which is more nearly allied to the Kestrel than ours, 
is often known to attack the Blue Jay of that country. No 
wonder that Jays have a great dislike to this Hawk, and 
never fail to annoy it by every means in their power. Some- 
times they will follow in order to plague it, and at other 
times, they, by imitating its note, will deceive and draw it 
from its haunts. In return for all this abuse, the Hawk now 
