EGGS OF BBITISH BIKDS. 19 



measures 175 by 13 inch, whilst the smallest is only 15 by 1'25 

 inch. The surface of the eggs is fine-grained, but not glossy, of an 

 unspotted greenish-white. 



THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



(Accipiter nisus.) 

 Plate 4, Fig. 4. 



Throughout the whole of Great Britain and Ireland this is a 

 common species in all well-wooded and cultivated localities. It 

 is found throughout Europe up to the limit of forest growth, 

 about lat. 69° N. In the northern portions of its range it is a 

 migratory species, wintering in South Europe and North-east 

 Africa, the Indian Peninsula and China. 



The nest is a large one, but the cavity which contains the eggs 

 is small and very shallow. It is always made of sticks, the 

 majority being dead ones ; it contains no lining beyond a few 

 roots, and, in rare cases, a little moss ; but in all the nests which 

 I have seen there was much down, sometimes scattered half-way 

 down the tree, probably accidentally rubbed off the bird as she 

 flew on and off the nest. 



The eggs are from three to six in number, although five may 

 be said to be an average clutch. They are round in shape, and 

 most richly marked. In ground-colour they are of a delicate 

 bluish-green, with the spots bold and decided, or reddish-brown of 

 various shades and intensity. Some specimens are so richly 

 marbled and clouded as to hide the ground-colour ; others have 

 the spots in a zone round the end of the egg, or more rarely round 

 the middle ; while yet, again, some are spotless or very faintly 

 marked, thus approaching very closely to certain types of Harrier's 

 eggs, and even in the same nest one egg will be conspicuous by its 

 small size, or the absence of spots. They vary from P78 to 15 

 inch in length, and from 139 to 12 inch in breadth. 



THE GOS-HAWK. 



(Accipiter palivmbarius.)* 

 Plate 4, Fig. (i. 

 It is only within the last half-century that the Gos-Hawk has 

 ceased to breed in Scotland, but it now no longer nests in the 



* Astur palumbarius — Saunders, Manual, p. 321. 



