it endeavours to escape, they follow it with determined pertinacity; and such is their swiftness in flight, that they seldom give chase in vain. Thus they take their prey on the wing, and, having struck their victim, they gripe it in their keen talons, and bear it away to the solitude of their

retreat.

Of this tribe one of the most beautiful is the GOSHAWK, (Astur palumbarius, BECHST.), a bird from its spirit,

powers, and docility, much valued in the days of falconry. It always takes its prey in the air, darting upon it with exceeding rapidity, but without the so much admired stoop of the falcon. Should the quarry be driven to covert, it ceases pursuit, but waits in patience on some perch at hand till the game again takes wing or flees from its lurk

ing place; in this way it will remain hour after hour on the watch; and an instance is recorded of a Goshawk which drove a pheasant to cover one evening, and remained stationary till "ten the next morning," when, on the falconers taking her away, the poor pheasant, which all that while had not dared to stir, but had remained as if chained to the spot, at once took wing and fled.

The Goshawk is distinguished by great beauty of colour and elegance of shape; its form, though compact, is long and slender; its eye is bright yellow, full, and large; and the talons are strong and sharp. In England it is now very scarce. On the continent it is spread through most parts of Europe, especially wooded mountain districts. It is common in France, but more so in Germany, Switzerland, and Russia, where it frequents the deep solitudes of the pine-forests, preying habitually upon hares, squirrels, and the larger kinds of birds. It builds in lofty trees; the eggs, three in number, are bluish white, blotched and barred with brown.

The upper parts are of a bluish ash-colour; the lower surface is beautifully spotted and dashed with narrow longitudinal marks, and transverse bars of brown on a white ground. The tail is ash-coloured barred with brown ; the beak bluish; the cere yellowish green; iris and tarsi yellow. The female has the upper surface tinted with brown instead of being pure bluish gray. The length of the male is nineteen or twenty inches, of the female twentythree or twenty-four.

North America produces an allied species distinguished alone by a darker colour on the head, by a greater multitude of zigzag lines and dashes of brown on the under parts, and by its somewhat superior size. It was met with by Dr. Richardson in the Hudson's Bay territories, and is figured in the " Fauna Boreali-Americana."

From Australia we receive a beautiful Hawk of this tribe of a pure unspotted white, (Astur albus, SHAW.) It is said to exhibit all the rapacity of its congeners; but we know little of its history.

To this tribe also belongs the SPARROW-HAWK, (Accipiter fringillarius, RAY,) a small but vigorous and daring persecutor of the feathered race. Rapid, quickeyed, and impetuous, it follows its prey, undaunted even by the presence of man, from whom the terrified fugitive has sometimes been known to claim that succour which the exigency of the moment demanded; and often has the dove rushed into the house, there to seek protection, and followed by its unrelenting foe. Of the rapidity and suddenness with which the Sparrow-Hawk makes its attack, the author once witnessed a remarkable instance. Walking along a tall hedge-row, which divided some fields, in one of the richest parts of Cheshire, his notice was attracted by a song bird, (probably a linnet,) which, not ten yards distant, perched upon a topmost twig, was pouring forth its "native wood-notes wild" in all the ecstasy of nature; rapid as an arrow something flashed by; the bird had ceased its song; it was already far away, grasped in the talons of the dreaded Sparrow-Hawk.

This fierce little hawk is spread over the whole of Europe, as well as Asia and Africa; it is not however very common, and is often confounded with the kestrel by those who are not acquainted with the subject. It frequents woods and coppices, building in trees, and making great havoc among small birds, quails, doves, and even partridges.

The male is considerably less than the female, being barely twelve inches in length; the upper parts are bluish ash-colour; the throat and chest rufous, which breaks into obscure bars as it proceeds to the under surface; tarsi yellow; beak black. The female is fifteen inches in length; the upper surface is of a browner tinge than in the male, and the throat and under parts are white, the former having small longitudinal dashes of reddish brown, the latter regular transverse bars of the same colour.

The young differ considerably, in having the general plumage brown, the back of the neck and the scapularies being blotched with white; and the under surface yellowish white, with irregular longitudinal dashes of brown.

The next tribe which claims our notice is that of the Kites, distinguished by the following characters: a compressed and feeble beak, obliquely situated nostrils, tarsi very short, and feathered to the toes, wings of exceeding length, but rounded, the fourth quill-feather being the longest, the first very short; tail forked.

The birds of this tribe are remarkable not so much for the rapidity as for the grace and ease which they display in their aerial evolutions. Sailing on outspread wings, of great extent and breadth, they sweep through the air in wide circles, often mounting to such a height as to become nearly invisible. The fullness of their plumage, and especially the breadth of their forked tail, tend materially to the body's buoyancy. Unlike the fierce falcons and hawks, these birds are of a cowardly disposition, seldom attacking any thing capable of resistance; indeed, there is something vulture-like in their appetites, as well as in their mode of flight, for they refuse not garbage and carrion, though they habitually prey on small animals, as moles, frogs, lizards, and young poultry. They do not pounce upon their prey while in the air, but skim it from the surface of the earth, and bear it off in their talons, before it is aware of their almost noiseless descent.

The example here selected as illustrative of this tribe is the COMMON KITE, (Milvus ictinus, SAV.) This well known bird is common not only in England but in most parts of Europe and the adjacent districts of Africa. It may at once be discriminated from every British hawk by its peculiar and graceful mode of flight; whence the provincial name of gled, or glede *, in allusion to its gliding along on pinions outspread, but motionless. The appearance of the Kite, however, is by no means hailed with pleasure, as, wheeling about with eyes intent upon the young broods which tenant the farm-yard, it attracts the notice first of the full grown poultry, who set up a universal scream of execration, and next of the farmer himself, who, anxious for the fate of ducks and chickens destined

* From a Saxon verb, whence our modern verb to glide.

for market or for his own spit, prepares his rusty gun to give the intruder its deserts. Should the Kite perceive how the matter stands, it wheels off in widening circles

till out of danger; should all be safe, after a few gyrations, down it sweeps, scattering confusion among the astonished broods, from whose number one is borne away screaming in its claws. If once successful, it is sure to repeat the visit; so that it not unfrequently happens that brood after brood is materially thinned in its numbers before the spoiler's outstretched wings decorate the barn-door, near the scene of his nefarious exploits.

In addition to young poultry, the Kite preys on moles and frogs; and Latham states that an instance was known of twenty-two moles having been found in one Kite's nest.