SPARROW-HAWK 291 



been tremendous. I have often seen Grouse and Par- 

 tridges ripped up the back and neck, and the skull laid 

 bare ; but I never saw a head taken clean off before.' " 



In February or March, 1902, Mr. K. J. Balston was 

 lying up for AVood-Pigeons in Bishop's Wood, East Kent. 

 A friend who was with him had a " decoy " up in an oak 

 tree. A Sparrow-Hawk saw it and stooped to it, and 

 when he found it was not a real bird he turned, but was 

 shot. 



Lord Clifton mentions a white Sparrow-Hawk, slightly 

 mottled with brown, among the birds observed at 

 Cobham, Kent. 



Mr. A. Kennard, writing to the Zoologist, 1886, says : 

 " This summer (1886), near Beckenham, Kent, I found 

 a Sparrow-Hawk's nest in a fir tree, containing no less 

 than eight eggs. The nest apparently was not an appro- 

 priated one, as is often the case, but was bailt by the 

 Hawk. It was composed of sticks and lined with a few 

 oak leaves. The number of eggs laid is sufficiently 

 unusual, I think." 



In his notes on the birds of Kent {Zoologist, 1896), 

 Captain Boyd Alexander gives the following details re- 

 specting the Sparrow-Hawk, which he says "is still 

 numerous. The thick portions of the Bedgebury and 

 Hemsted Woods often defy the keeper's search, and con- 

 sequently not a few broods reared in these localities escape 

 at least premature destruction. In this neighbourhood 

 the nest is invariably placed at the base of two forked 

 branches which jut out of the main stem of a fir or larch 

 tree, and from 25 to 30 feet from the ground. The front 

 of the nest always faces the warmer side, while the back 

 is usually protected by the main stem of the tree. Dur- 

 ing winter the old nest is resorted to as a roosting place. 



