and of powerful wing. It soars very high, and moves at a vast height, round and round, without any apparent motion of the wings: hence its name of glead or glide.

The poet Cowper describes this elegant motion in his well known lines:

"But cawing rooks, and kites that swim sublime
In still repeated circles, screaming loud,

The jay, the pie, and ev'n the boding owl,
That hails the rising moon, have charms for me."

One other of the larger hawks is not uncommon with us, differing in habits and appearance from the three preceding. It beats hedges and fields, flying near the ground with an easy, leisurely flight, somewhat like the buoyant, fitful course of the sea-gull; first one wing, and

then the other, being most elevated. The cock and hen birds differ so much in plumage as to be long taken for different species, till Mr. Montagu determined the fact by rearing the young birds. The HEN HARRIER, or cock bird, is a beautiful blue hawk, almost the colour of a dove-house pigeon; whilst the hen, called the ringtail, is a large, long-winged, brown hawk, larger than the male (as is the

case in all the hawk tribe), with a white bar across the tail.

These birds make their nest in furze: they are very destructive to game. In shooting, the writer has seen the hen harrier dart at a partridge which his dogs put up, and carry it off: by following the marauder some distance he

got the partridge, which was quite dead, with a very slight mark on the head. Another day he shot the ringtail; and, on examining the spot where the hawk got up, found a partridge half devoured: this had been killed, as appeared by the feathers, at a little distance, but carried to the edge of a plash of water, where the plunderer had an opportunity of washing his beak and claws between every mouthful, and eating his quarry like a gentleman! — or rather, in this case, a lady! - Mr. White says, this bird is sometimes so bold that it will hover round the sportsmen beating a field, and pursue pheasants as they are started, even immediately after the gun has been fired.

The four smaller hawks, which are not uncommon, are the hobby, the sparrow-hawk, the kestrel, and the merlin.

The HOBBY, about the size of the sparrowhawk (12 inches in length), is not unlike it in plumage, having a black head, but the stripes in the breast are faint and lengthways, instead of across. It is said to migrate and leave us in October, but we have shot it in January.

The SPARROW-HAWK is a bold and active plunderer; forth from his forest home he goes at early morn, and returns, late in the evening, the same way. Larks and small birds are his chief prey. The writer has often allured him

to his destruction, by walking up the larks for him in the open fields of the Isle of Thanet, when the sparrow-hawk, descending to pursue them, came within shot. If not the first stoop, yet he would wait, at a little distance, till the lark was again disturbed, when he again rapidly approached. These birds are very destructive to young chickens: one of these hawks, having his talons cut, and a cork on his bill, was thrown down among the brood hens, who buffeted and beat him to death. "Nothing," says Mr. White, "could exceed the indignation of the enraged matrons."

The KESTREL (well named the Wind Hover) is easily known by its stationary place whilst hovering in the air over its prey; hence it sometimes drops down on its quarry, or at others, proceeds, having lost its opportunity: the cock and hen bird differ much in plumage. The hen (whose back is of rust colour crossed with black bars) is the most beautiful of British hawks. It is fond of the vicinity of old ruins; and in warm weather, we hear its cry, pli, pli, pli, sharply repeated. It hunts in pairs.

The MERLIN is the least of this rapacious tribe, hardly larger than a thrush, yet fierce and active. The plates of all these are given with admirable accuracy in Bewick's British Birds,—a manual for those fond of this subject.

The Hobby leaves us usually in autumn, when the merlin first appears in the southern parts of our island. Many of these migrations are continually taking place around us, unheeded or

unknown.

The hawk tribe were formerly greatly valued for their use in falconry. They were trained to the chase of other birds, and to return to the whistle of their keeper. This sport was confined to the noble and the great, who endeavoured to protect these rapacious birds by severe laws, much resembling in spirit the cruel enactments to preserve forests and chases for the pastime of some of our Norman kings.

There is one family (the pie tribe) on which we will bestow a few lines. Some persons may think these birds are coarse and common: but we can deem nothing coarse which is stamped by Nature's wondrous hand; and it is because they are common, and may therefore serve as objects of almost daily observation, that we would try to enlist them into the service of our innocent amusement.

One retrospective glance on time gone by will teach us, that it is true philosophy to gather as we go, in the careless and unheeded minutes as they pass, every little circumstance which may contribute to cheer our path in