804 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



white. Irides, rich brown ; feet, yellow with black claws, 

 and a yellow area around either eye as well as the base 

 of the blue-tinted beak. 



In the female, fine black bands mark the entire tail, the 

 terminal one being broad. She has a longitudinally 

 streaked crown, with pale brownish streakings on a 

 yellowish-white breast and lower parts. Her shoulders 

 are rufous red, while in most other respects she more 

 or less nearly resembles the male in her coloration. 



Our Sparrow Hawk chooses curious places sometimes 

 wherein to lay its clutch of beautifully marked eggs, the 

 ground-color of which usually is a cream-white. Occasion- 

 ally the female is satisfied with a deserted hole of any of 

 our larger woodpeckers, 

 while any other hollow in 

 a tree has been made to 

 answer. The eggs have 

 also been found in rock 

 cavities, and in various 

 holes in clay and sand- 

 banks, while nesting-boxes 

 set up for other birds have 

 been selected; and when 

 these were not available 

 around the home, the pair 

 will even choose any old 

 cranny under the barn- 

 roof or a similar place in 

 any of the larger out- 

 houses. 



Judging from the above, 

 it is not at all difficult for 

 us to imagine that our little 

 Sparrow Hawk has a strong 

 leaning toward real socia- 

 bility with respect to his 

 arch enemy — man. Many 

 years ago, I had in my 

 possession a tame one, 

 which was kept for several 

 months, and during all that 

 time it was one of the most 

 interesting little pets im- 

 aginable. There was no 

 difficulty whatever in my 

 making a number of fine 

 photographic negatives of 

 him, and the picture obtain- 

 ed from one of these has 

 been reproduced as an illus- 

 tration to the present arti- 

 cle. Perhaps I may be par- 

 doned for the pride I felt when, with others of a set of 

 animal pictures, it won a prize at an exhibit given under 

 the auspices of the Aintree Photographic Society at 

 Liverpool in November, 1898 (Class "K") — twenty 

 years ago. 



Only at exceptional times do Sparrow Hawks prey 

 upon our small song birds, and upon still rarer occasions 



GREAT OR BLUE LOBELIA IS A RELATIVE OF THE RED CAKDI 

 NAL FLOWER, BOTH BELONGING TO THE Lobetiaceae OR LOBELIA 

 FAMILY 



Fig. 6 — It is not difficult to recognize the bright blue flowers of this plant 

 (L. siphilitica), of which the example here shown is an average specimen. 



very young chickens or ducklings are taken by them 

 from the farm yard. On the other hand, however, this 

 little raptorial prince kills and devours every year simply 

 tliousands of field mice, moles, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 and no end of other insects and small mammals, the 

 ravages of which are only too well known to every 

 farmer and agriculturist from one end of the country 

 to the other. 



In the autumn, when we observe a Sparrow Hawk 

 hovering in his characteristic way over some corn- 

 field where the grain has been shocked up, and giv- 

 ing vent to his well-known call of Killy — Killy — Killy 

 — Killy — Killy, we may be sure that he is in quest of 



the first field mouse that 

 has the temerity to show 

 itself. Note how he checks 

 himself ; and, suspended 

 over one spot on quick- 

 wavering wing, his piercing 

 eyes have detected the im- 

 hapi^y mouse below. Down 

 he comes in a graceful 

 swope — and the distant 

 squeal of the unfortunate 

 rodent is distinctly heard. 



On account of this wav- 

 ering flight, many people 

 have applied the name of 

 "windhover" to the Spar- 

 row Hawk ; and, as it is a 

 vernacular name with a 

 reason for it, we may let it 

 go at that. This also ap- 

 plies to calling it the "Kit- 

 ty hawk," while, as already 

 remarked, it has been giv- 

 en not a few other common 

 names. 



In Florida the Sparrow 

 Hawks are said to be smal- 

 ler than the more northern 

 species, while there are also 

 desert forms of them in 

 the western country ; de- 

 scriptions of these will be 

 found in most works pre- 

 senting popular accounts of 

 our raptorial birds. 



As pointed out in a prev- 

 ious paragraph, the Sparrow 

 Hawk in captivity makes a 

 very engaging little pet. To 

 bring this about, not a little patience must be exercised — 

 above all else no end of well-directed tactfulness and 

 kindness. As a matter of fact, the history — both written 

 and traditional — of the attitude assumed by man toward 

 any or all of the animals below him in the biological 

 scale, is responsible for the behavior of any particular 

 one of them, with respect to the development of gentle- 



