116 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



hawk perched "in a tree, while white-throated sparrows and j uncos 

 fed unconcernedly on the ground below, and a song sparrow sang." 



Primarily a bird of the open country and the borders of woodland, 

 and finding most of its food on the ground, the sparrow hawk is 

 commonly seen in the characteristic pose of the falcons — hunched up 

 and frowning — on high, exposed perches from which it can look out 

 over wide stretches of grassland or pasture. It drops easily to the 

 ground to capture a grasshopper or cricket it apparently has seen 

 from a distance, and, on returning to its watch-tower, a telegraph 

 pole or wire, or a branch near the top of a tree, it tilts its tail a few 

 times, swinging it through a considerable arc before settling down to 

 watch again. 



We see it scattered numerously through the open flatwoods of the 

 Southern States, and of this region C. J. Pennock remarks in his 

 notes that "they are rarely absent from the edge of the smoke which 

 rises from extensive fires in the pinewoods and marshes, passing back 

 and forth through a considerable pall of the uprising and wind- 

 whirled smoke in pursuit of their winged prey which fly up in advance 

 of the fire." He also tells of a bird that "with its feet picked a 

 'lizard' from a tree trunk, plucking it off without stopping its rapid 

 flight." 



Voice. — The common note of the sparrow hawk is a cry of fairly 

 high pitch — about that of a robin's alarm note — divided into syllables, 

 often six or eight, each one inflected upward a little, qui, qui, qui, etc. 

 Although this cry suggests a similar call of the flicker, the delivery 

 of the notes is markedly different in the two birds. The flickei 

 hammers its notes out, as if pounding a piano key over and over, 

 whereas the sparrow hawk delivers them with a lighter touch, each 

 note delicately staccato and set off by the briefest pause. The hawk's 

 voice is not quite a pure tone; it contains a quality of slight roughness 

 — a cry as opposed to a whistle. This note varies somewhat. I 

 have heard it given so as to suggest the call of a yellowlegs — in this 

 case the notes being inflected downward but without the brazen 

 quality of the sandpiper's voice. The syllables killy-killy, etc., have 

 long been applied to this note, and often it does have a disyllabic 

 effect. 



Francis H. Allen's notes mention "a short, shrill chatter and a note 

 yee, with or without a slight rising inflection." This latter note is 

 evidently a modification of ki-wee, ki-wee, ki-wee, noted by Knight 

 (1908). 



Field marks. — To distinguish the sparrow hawk from the pigeon 

 hawk — the two birds are very close in size and in cut of wing — a 

 glance of the ruddy brown on the back and tail of the former bird is 

 enough. 



