THE DETAILS OF LIFE 
127 
above them, and then sped away to this side and 
that, the lark all the while emitting at short 
intervals a low chirp, the hawk silent. At length, 
the lark suddenly dropped down among the trees 
and into the bushes, but so did the hawk. It was 
all over, I thought; but no—when the hawk 
re-appeared, he had nothing in his talons. He flew 
slowly along one side of the garden wall, then along 
the other, shot in among the trees, then among the 
stacks, flew round the house, searched the trees once 
more; but not finding what he looked for, flew off 
to a small tree by the road, and alighted on it. 
“I have seen a more protracted chase, but 
none so interesting. It was evident that the-lark 
could turn more abruptly than the hawk, and had 
equal speed in a direct flight. Probably, however, 
it had not equal endurance, and it seemed to 
know that if its enemy could come down upon 
it, all would be lost. In an open space, at least 
over water, the hawk must at length have secured 
it. The shelter of trees or bushes would not have 
availed the lark, had its pursuer been a sparrow- 
hawk, which, however, could not have turned so 
quickly in the air. It seems surprising, after all, 
that there should be so little difference in the speed 
of two birds, one intended to capture and feed upon 
the other ” (Natural History of Deeside , p. 299). 
A Lover of the Details of Life. 
When we say that MacGillivray was a type of 
the true naturalist, we mean that he had a synthetic 
outlook — on Nature , rather than on Birds and 
Beasts, or on Plants, or on the Earth; we mean 
also that he studied the life that is lived in the 
open , though of a truth he could wield the 
scalpel in the laboratory with the best; we mean 
