The Sparrow-hawk is a larger and fiercer bird, and the one that preys most frequently on chickens. A gentleman once missed a great many chickens from his poultry yard, and, after a little careful watching, he found the plunderer was none other than a large, hungry Sparrow-hawk. To catch the thief, he ordered a net to be hung up in such a way that the hawk in his next visit could not fail to be entangled. The net was hung, the thief was caught, and, in order to punish the murderer as he deserved, the gentleman gave him over to the tender mercies of the brood hens whose families he had desolated. That he might be helpless in their hands, his wings and talons were cut, and a cork was put on his beak. The cries and screams of the bereaved mothers were said, by Mr. White, the charming naturalist of Selborne, to be wonderfully expressive of rage, fear, and revenge; they flew upon him in a body, they "upbraided--they execrated--they insulted--they triumphed--in a word they never desisted from buffeting their adversary until they had torn him in a hundred pieces." The Hawk is very bold. Mr. P. John tells of one that he found calmly plucking the feathers of a large pigeon on the drawing-room floor, having followed the poor bird through the open window into the room and there killed it. And another actually chased a pigeon through the glass of his "drawing-room window, out at the other end of the house through another window, not at all scared by the clattering of the broken glass." [Illustration: THE VULTURE.] THE VULTURE.