Hawk and Lark.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 638, 16 December 1932, Page 6

Hawk and Lark.

Nature Notes

By James Drummond , F.L.S., F.Z.S. QN A LOVELY SPRING MORNING, when the whole world seemed to be at peace, a North Canterbury farmer heard a skylark singing blithely, and he watched it soar in gladness. A hawk sprang up from a fence and began to circle in the air in the direction of the songster. The song suddenly ceased, but the lark rose higher and higher. The hawk rose with it. The distance between them became shorter, and the hawk’s circles became narrower. They rose so high that they were mere specks against the sky. Their movements could not be followed by the eye. A moment later, it seemed, the hawk was descending at a great pace with its wings .almost closed, and with one talon round the lark’s neck. It came down straight, as if it intended to strike the earth, but it made a graceful curve and alighted on the fence, the little songster, which had set out so gaily, in its grasp. The same observer, 'on another occasion, walked up a forest-clad gully near Kowai Bush and sat down on the top of a ridge, lie saw a shag hard pressed by a hawk. They flew in front of him and below him, the hawk about two feet above and two feet behind the shag. The hawk was preparing to strike when, to the watcher's surprise, the shag turned a complete somersault and struck the hawk a blow on the breast with its long bill. The hawk dropped in the air and flew away feebly, while the shag continued its flight as if nothing had happened.