DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 5 



may be said to be a Peregrine Falcon in miniature. 

 It is a summer visitor only, coming in April and 

 leaving with the Swallows, in October. Its distri- 

 bution in these islands is very unequal. Yarrell 

 states that its range in England is somewhat like 

 that of the Nightingale. The analogy is not strong, 

 however ; the Nightingale, for example, being very 

 plentiful in parts of Somerset, where the Hobby is 

 extremely rare. Then, again, a line drawn through 

 Yorkshire from Flamborough Head to INIorecambe 

 Bay may be said roughly to define the northern 

 range of the Nightingale, whereas the Hobby cer- 

 tainly occurs as far north as the Isle of Arran. In 

 Ireland, two occurrences only are noted, and in 

 Wales it is little known. 



The Falconid^e which mav now be classed as 

 familiar English birds are thus reduced to three 

 species — the Sparrow-hawk, Kestrel, and Merlin. 



The Sparrow-hawk usually builds in fairlv high 

 trees, not unfrequently appropriating the abodes 

 of Crows and IMagpies, and the eggs, four to five in 

 number, are heavily blotched with brownish-crim- 

 son on a bluish-white ground. The voung are 

 covered with a delicate and pure white down. The 

 species is generally distributed throughout the 

 United Kingdom, and inhabits every country of 

 the European continent, as well as many other parts 

 of the world. 



It has been said that the female Sparrow-hawk, 

 when she has nestlings, is the only bird of prey 

 that the British gamekeeper has to fear. It is 

 certain that at this time the mother bird is unusually 



