now PEREGRINES STRIKE THEIR PREY 145 
ground in the hope of flushing it, and then they 
will catch it in a minute. 
" I have seen falcons and hawks break their 
wings by striking the smallest twig on the 
branch of a tree when misjudging a stoop at a 
bird. 
" Therefore, you can imagine how easily a 
hawk would smash its wing if it attempted this, 
to hit a heavy bird like a grouse or pheasant 
going at terrific speed. 
" If you threw a lawn-tennis ball against a 
falcon's wing coming at you at the rate of over 
a hundred miles per hour, and hit its wing-bone, 
that hawk would never fly again. 
" I have many times in my life, when casting 
lightly with a very small trout rod, just touched 
the wing of a swift or swallow with the tip of the 
rod. I never broke a rod thus, but nearly always 
broke the bird's wing. I think, when you come 
to consider these things, you will see that a hawk 
dare not strike the smallest bird with its wing. 
" It uses its beak only to finish off" a bird on the 
ground, and this she does by breaking the bird's 
neck with its beak. 
" I have lived amongst wild and trained hawks 
19 
