t, it
always carries the point of one of its wings forward, in order to parry
the venomous bites. Sometimes it seizes its prey and throws it high in
the air, thus wearying it out. In the present instance, the battle was
obstinate, and conducted with equal address on both sides. The serpent
at length endeavored to regain his hole; while the bird, guessing his
design, threw herself before him. On whatever side the reptile
endeavored to escape, the enemy still appeared before him. Rendered
desperate, he resolved on a last effort. He erected himself boldly, to
intimidate the bird, and, hissing dreadfully, displayed his menacing
throat, inflamed eyes, and head swollen with rage and venom. The
falcon, for one moment, seemed intimidated, but soon returned to the
charge, and, covering her body with one of her wings as a buckler, she
struck her enemy with the bony protuberance of the other. The serpent
at last staggered and fell. The conqueror then fell upon him to
despatch him, and with one stroke of her beak laid open his skull."

The KESTREL.--Selby gives us the following curious account of this
small European species of falcon. "I had," says he, "the pleasure, this
summer, of seeing the kestrel engaged in an occupation entirely new to
me--hawking after cockchaffers late in the evening. I watched him
through a glass, and saw him dart through a swarm of the insects, seize
one in each claw, and eat them whilst flying. He returned to the charge
again and again."

An extraordinary spectacle was exhibited, in 1828, in the garden of Mr.
May, of Uxbridge, in the instance of a tame male hawk sitting on three
hen's eggs. The same bird hatched three chickens the year before; but
being irritated by some person, it destroyed them. It also hatched one
chicken, in the year above mentioned, which was placed with another
brood.

The SPARROW HAWK.--A remarkable instance of the boldness of this bird
was witnessed at Market Deeping, England, one Sunday. Just as the
congregation were returning from divine service in the afternoon, a
hawk of this species made a stoop at a swallow which had alighted in
the centre of the church; and, notwithstanding the surrounding
spectators, and the incessant twitterings of numbers of the victim's
friends, the feathered tyrant succeeded in bearing his prey
triumphantly into the air.

The BUZZARD.--Of this common species of hawk, Buffon tells us the
following story: "A buzzard that had been domesticated in Fr