American Sparrow-Ha.wk 191 



on the fore-neck and breast only ; wing 7*75. A young male is like the 

 adult male, but is rather darker rufous, has hardly any black spots 

 on the wings, and has a tawny tip to the tail instead of white ; below 

 the spots are larger and more conspicuous, though hardly more 

 numerous. A young female is slightly darker rufous above, and has 

 the bars blacker and the crown-patch with black shaft-marks. 



Distribution. — From Alaska, Hudson Bay, and Newfoundland 

 southwards, east of the Rocky Mountains to northern South America ; 

 replaced west of the Rockies by F. s.phalmna, if really distinguishable. 



In Colorado the Sparrow-Hawk is perhaps the commonest of all 

 the raptorial birds, breeding in the plains and mountains up to about 

 10,000 feet. It is chiefly a summer migrant, arriving towards the end 

 of March ; near Colorado Springs, March 26th (Aiken), Loveland, 

 March 21st (W. G. Smith), and leaving again late in October. A few 

 winter in the south of the State and even as far north as Boulder 

 (Henderson) and Barr (Hersey) ; Lowe (01) saw two on January 14th, 

 near Beulah. 



The following are breeding records : Boulder co. (Gale), Twin Lakes 

 (Scott), Garden of the Gods, near Manitou (Allen), Wet Mountains to 

 10,000 feet (Lowe), Salida (Frey). 



Habits. — ^The Sparrow-Hawk spends most of his 

 time on a fence-post or telegraph pole, watching for 

 his prey, which consists almost exclusively of grass- 

 hoppers and beetles ; occasionally small birds and mice 

 are taken, but 215 out of 320 stomachs examined by 

 Fisher contained only insects. Sometimes he hovers 

 over a field or meadow ; then darts suddenly down and 

 seizing the victim, retires to a convenient perch 

 to devour it. 



Like so many other insect-eating birds, the Sparrow- 

 Hawk goes high up above timber line in late summer, 

 to feast on the grasshoppers there. 



In most cases the Sparrow-Hawk utilizes the old holes 

 of Flickers and other Woodpeckers for its eggs. Some- 

 times it uses a natural hole in a stub or tree ; sometimes 

 the crevices and cracks in rocks, as in the Garden of the 

 Gods. Gale found it breeding on the bottom of an old 

 Flicker-hole — it was flat and hard, and there was no nest 



