292 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



arrives from the south early in March, or as soon as the 

 ground is nearly free from snow, and it does not retire 

 southward again till late in the fall, although it is some- 

 times seen migrating in large scattered flocks in August or 

 September, as described by Professor Frank Smith, in the 

 Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club, Vol. V, Fig. 75. 



1904 p. 77. ^^^^ °^ Sparrow 



It is found everywhere throughout the state, commonly Hawk, 



perched upon some dead stub or bare limb, or more frequently on telegraph 

 wires or on a fencepost in the open field. Often it is seen hovering almost 

 stationary above a clover field, darting down into the grass to seize a grass- 

 hopper, cricket, or other large insect, or almost as often a field mouse. 

 Rarely is it seen following birds, and when so engaged the victims are as 

 often English Sparrows as any other species. On the whole it is an ex- 

 tremely beneficial bird and should be rigidly protected. True, it does 

 occasionally kill some small insect-eating bird, but these lapses from 

 virtue are more than atoned for by the continual war which it wages upon 

 injurious insects, field mice, and other vermin. Among 291 stomachs 

 reported upon by Dr. A. K. Fisher, only 1 contained remains of a game 

 bird (quail); 53, other birds; 89, mice; 12, other mammals; 12, reptiles or 

 batrachians; 215, insects; and 29, spiders. 



In its nesting habits it is peculiar, since it makes its home almost in- 

 variably in the hollow of a tree, usually a more or less natural hollow caused 

 by decay, but not infrequently the hole of a woodpecker, sometimes already 

 deserted, but often deliberately wrested from the owner, usually after a 

 decisive conflict. As a rule the nest is high up in some dead tree, but 

 sometimes quite near the ground. Occasionally a bird-house or dove-cot 

 is used, but these are exceptions. The eggs in Michigan are laid between 

 the middle of May and the first of June. They range in number from two 

 to five (occasionally six or seven), and are generally white or rusty white, 

 thickly speckled and spotted with cinnamon brown, often so thickly as to 

 appear of uniform color. They average 1.38 by 1.11 inches. 



As pointed out earlier, this true falcon should not be confounded with 

 the Sharp-shinned Hawk, which is of about the same size and is frequently 

 called the "Sparrow Hawk." The present species is a valuable bird to the 

 farmer, while the Sharp-shinned Hawk is very destructive to wild birds 

 and small chickens. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION, 



Bill of the fiilcon type, with tooth and notch; second and third primaries longest and 

 about equal, only the first and second distinctly emarginate on inner web, and in many 

 females and young only the first; tail mainly deep rust-red (chestnut-rufous), with a 

 broad sub-terminal black band. 



Adult male: Top of head bluish gray, with or without a central patch of rusty; back, 

 rump and scapvdars briglit rusty, with more or less numerous black bars; each side of head 

 witii two conspicuous black bars, and three more black patches encircling the neck, seven 

 black spots in all; chin and throat white, unspotted; rest of imder parts white, either pure 

 or rusty, and with or without streaks and circular spots of deep black; primaries black 

 above, their inner webs with numerous white bars; remainder of upper surface of wing 

 and coverts clear bluish-gray or bluish-slate, more or less spotted with black; tail with 

 the basal three-fourths rich rust-red without bars (except sometimes on outer two pairs), 

 then a broad subterminal bar of deep black and a narrow white tip. 



Adult female: Head markings precisely as in male, including the seven black spots, 

 but entire upper parts back of neck, including upper surface of tail, narrowly cross-barred 

 with rusty and black, the subterminal black tail-band much narrower than in male, and 

 the tip rusty or buffy, not white; cliin and throat white, as in male, but breast and belly 



