SINGULAR CAPTURE OF A HAWK.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3133, 1 August 1867, Page 4

SINGULAR CAPTURE OF A HAWK.

To the Editor of the Wibklt Nkws. Sib, — As there has been muoh discussion inthe papers i about the natural history and predatory powers of ; hawks, I hare lent the following as a truthful ganatire !of a fact which occurred at this place on the data stated below ; should you think it worth insertion in your columns, you will oblige. That the hawk, that most wary of all birds, loses, under the pressure of extreme hunger, hi* natural shyness and cunning, the following recent occurrence would seem thoroughly to demonstrate :—: — * Early on Friday morning (July 19th) Mr. Thomas O'Carroll, a settler at Maungakaramea, whilst looking for horses in some thick manuka scrub at Wangarei Heads, came suddenly upon a hawk intently engaged in derouring a hen-pheasant. The bird- was so deeply ' engrossed in its meal that it did not perceive the Approach of Mr. O'Carroll, who easily caught it in his hat, and conreyed it home. It does not appear that the hawk was thus taken from its being orergorged, as it presented a very lean appearanoe, and the henpheasant upon which it was feeding had not long been dead, and was nearly entire, so that the bird must have fallen a prey to the all-absorbing cravings of hunger, rather than to its more 'satisfactory repletion. When Mr. O'Oonnell took thehawkhome, he naturally oonoluded that it had been winged or otherwise wounded, and consequently he omitted to take the precaution of closing the door, as he placed the bird on the ground, His doubts, however, were rapidly and unpleasantly dispelled ; for the hawk no sooner found himself at liberty than, making good use of his wings, he disappeared from the gaze of his disappoints oaptor. B.K.