110 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



while both birds sat in their tree preening themselves, an exercise in 

 which they spent a vast amount of time." 



In common with most birds of prey, a pair of sparrow hawks usually 

 nests far removed from another pair. Charles R. Stockard (1905), 

 reporting an exception to this rule, says: "I found them in Adams 

 County [Mississippi] nesting in a manner almost social or colonial. 

 In a newly cleared field there were many old stumps of deadened 

 trees, some of which were very tall, and many pairs of this little hawk 

 were nesting in these stumps. Some were in natural cavities and 

 others in the deserted burrows of Pileated and other woodpeckers. 

 * * * This clearing was about one mile long and half a mile wide." 



Eggs. — [Author's note: The sparrow hawk lays ordinarily four or 

 five eggs, occasionally only three, and very rarely six or even seven. 

 The eggs are ovate, short-ovate, or oval in shape; and the shell is 

 smooth but without gloss. The ground color is white, creamy white, 

 or pinkish white, and rarely "light pinkish cinnamon." Usually 

 they are more or less evenly covered with rninute dots and small 

 spots, which are often concentrated at one end or in a ring around the 

 egg; sometimes they are more boldly and unevenly marked with larger 

 spots or blotches. The markings are in various shades of brown, 

 "Mars brown", "russet", "tawny", or "ochraceous-tawny" ; a few 

 eggs show handsome lavender shell markings. Some eggs are very 

 sparingly marked, or nearly, or quite, immaculate. 



The measurements of 169 eggs, in the United States National 

 Museum, average 35 by 29 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 39 by 32, 31 by 28, and 33 by 26 millimeters.] 



Young. — Four eggs in the nest under Miss Sherman's (1913) 

 observation hatched on June 4, 5, and 6, showing that the incubation 

 period in this case was 29 and 30 days. Miss Sherman continues: 



Very soon after hatching the young would bite vigorously at a finger that 

 touched their bills, opening their eyes for an instant as they did so, but not until 

 they were two or three days old did they keep their eyes open longer than a few 

 seconds at a time. From their first day they uttered a faint cry, when expecting 

 food, that suggested the scream of the mature Sparrow Hawk, also peeps similar 

 to a chicken but more mournful. * * * There was a third cry, difficult to 

 describe, which they uttered when fed. 



On June 13 the first manifestations of fear were detected, when the hawklets 

 flattened themselves on the bottom of the nest, but such signs were rare for a few 

 days thereafter. It was on the following day that for the first time they were 

 seen ranged against the sides of the nest their backs to the wall; this arrangement 

 appeared to be the normal one, thus the center of the nest was given to the one 

 that was eating, or to the mother, when she came to feed them. When two weeks 

 old they could run quite well; when placed on the floor of the blind they ran to the 

 inner angles formed by the studdings and the walls, where with backs well braced 

 they faced the foe, and a few days later met with savage claws an approaching 

 hand. 



When the nestlings were 16 days old — 



