A VES— HAWK. 



455 



Of the buzzard, kite, and falcon kind, above seventy different species, 

 foreign and domestic, have been enumerated. Of all these the n,> ure and 

 properties are nearly the same, and the description we have given of the 

 jer-falcon, will apply to most of the hawk species, only differing in size and 

 other minuter particulars ; and that of the buzzard to the kites in general, 

 with the same allowance. Of the foreign birds of these species, some are 

 crested, and others have plumage differing from those of Europe. 



THE AMERICAN S P A R R W-H A W K i 



xS a constant resident in almost every part of the United States, particularly 

 in the states north of Maryland. The habits and manners of this bird are 

 well known. It flies rather irregularly. It perches on the top of a dead 

 tree or pole in the middle of a field ; and sits there in an almost perpendicu- 

 lar position, sometimes for an hour at a time, frequently jerking its tail, 

 and reconnoitering the ground below, in every direction, for mice and 

 lizards, &c. It approaches the farmhouse particularly in the morning, 

 skulking about the barn-yard for mice or young chickens. It frequently 

 plunges into a thicket after small birds, as if at random, but always with a 

 particular and generally a fatal aim. 



Though small snakes, mice, and lizards, be favorite morsels with this 

 active bird, yet we are not to suppose it altogether destitute of delicacy in 

 feeding. It will seldom or never eat of any thing that it has not itself killed ; 

 and even that, if not in good eating order, is sometimes rejected. A very 

 respectable friend informs me, says Wilson, that one morning he observed 



1 Falco sparverius, Lin. 



