could compel her now to quit her deadly gripe, the powerful and only dreaded weapon of her antagonist was secured and thus disarmed, he became a sure and easy prey. Scarcely was the gigantic bird prostrate on the ground than death ensued; for in this noble race of Falcons, destined for blood and slaughter, torture makes no part of its nature; but, like what we are told of the generous Lion, exulting in death, but disdaining cruelty, in less than half a minute did the Falcon tear out the gullet and windpipe of the Heron, and regale on the head and neck.” “It was very cruel to cut off the Heron’s bill, Uncle Thomas,” said Mary. “I cannot in any view commend the experiment,” said Uncle Thomas; “though it certainly does in a very striking manner illustrate the Instinct of the Falcon in securing its prey. Here was a bird taken and domesticated before it could have seen its parents attack the animals on which they feed, yet we find that it exhibited all those peculiarities which distinguish its assaults in its native state—at once fixing on the most vulnerable part of its victim, and availing itself of the advantages which it could derive from pouncing down upon it from above, and thus giving additional force to its blow. “Some of the Falcons” continued Uncle Thomas, “are very bold in pursuit of their prey. A Sparrow-Hawk has been known to enter a church while the congregation was retiring and bear off a Swallow which had taken refuge within the building. On another occasion a Kestrel pursued a Sparrow in at the window of a house, and so eager was it to secure its prey that the window was closed, and both were taken before it could escape. A person once saw a Falcon, called in America the Duck-Hawk, pursuing an aquatic bird, called the Razor-Bill, which, instead of assaulting as usual with the death-pounce from the beak, he seized by the head with both claws, and made towards the land; his prisoner croaking, screaming, and struggling lustily; but being a heavy bird he so far overbalanced his aggressor that both descended fast towards the sea, when just as they touched the water, the Falcon let go his hold and ascended; the Razor-Bill as instantaneously diving below. “Wilson mentions an instance in which the Sparrow-Hawk was not deterred from pouncing on its prey even by the presence of a sportsman, with his gun ready to shoot it. ‘One day,’ says he ‘I observed a bird of this species perched on the highest top of a large poplar, on the skirts of a wood; I was in the act of raising the gun to my eye, when he swept down with the rapidity of an arrow into a thicket of briars about thirty yards off, where I shot him dead, and on coming up found a small Field-Sparrow quivering in his grasp. Both our aims had been taken at the same instant and unfortunately for him both were fatal.’