SPARROIV-HAWK. 213 



and fir plantations of more elevated areas. It is for the 

 most part a solitary species, and although it probably 

 pairs for life, the sexes do not keep very close company, 

 except in the breeding season. In many cases the same 

 nest will be used season by season, or a new one is made 

 each spring in a tree close by that containing the nest 

 of the previous year. The nest of the Sparrow- Hawk 

 is always in a tree of some kind, and always made by 

 the birds themselves. A larch, a pine, or a fir tree are 

 favourite situations in some localities, oaks and alders in 

 others. The nest is rarely made in the slender branches, 

 almost invariably in a crotch where several large limbs 

 spring out, or on the horizontal branch of a larch orpine, 

 close to the trunk. Sometimes it is made at a distance 

 from the trunk, on the dense flat branch of a fir. The 

 nest is large, flat, straggling, and loosely if firmly put 

 together, and made of sticks and twigs ; the finest being 

 reserved for the shallow cavity which contains the eggs. 

 Very often a few green branches of the larch are inserted, 

 and bits of down are generally to be seen in the nest 

 and near by. The nest often remains empty for several 

 days when finished. The Sparrow-Hawk is a close 

 sitter, and will often dash by an intruder's head as he 

 climbs up to the nest. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Sparrow-Hawk are from four to six in 

 number, five being the average clutch. They are pale 

 greenish-blue in ground colour, spotted, blotched, and 

 clouded with rich reddish-brown, and paler brown. 

 They vary considerably in the amount and richness of 

 the markings, some specimens being so abundantly 

 spotted as to hide most of the ground colour ; others 

 are very handsomely zoned round either end, or even 

 round the middle. Rarely they are almost spotless ; 

 and occasionally they disj)l ly one or two large, irregular 



