Country Life •
OWL versus HAWK.
A surprising example of the militant prowess of that unwelcome invader, the little owl, has been recorded in my neighbourhood. A landowner walking, gun in hand, along the edge of one of his woods, saw a hawk stoop at a smaller bird. There was a flurry in the air as the two met and both disappeared. He entered the wood to discover the sequel, and as he approached the place a bird rose and he shot it. It proved to be a small owl, that terror of our young birds.; and to his entire amazement as he walked forward he came upon the body of the hawk, a sparrow-hawk, killed stone dead by the grip of a claw at the back of the neck. The owl, at which the sparrow-hawk had struck, had killed his attacker. The marvel will leap to the intelligence of anyone who has handled one of these small owls. They are just feathers and claws and beak, weighing only a few ounces. That they can kill a sparrow-hawk seems outside the range of all probability ; but of the authenticity of this incident there is no question.
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