360 ACCIPITER NISUS. 



iiishment he exclaimed, ' Ah ! Sir, the poor little things are 

 gasping.' They were in fact almost suffocated by the dead birds 

 about them. He threw down no less than sixteen, amongst 

 which were larks, yellow buntings, chaffinches, hedge-sparrows, 

 and green linnets. I took home the young, which were four in 

 number. They seemed not to have been fed during the day, as 

 they were exceedingly hungry. In these two instances it would 

 appear that the male bird provided the food, but did not give it 

 to his family. Whether this is always the case wnth the Spar- 

 row Hawk I cannot ascertain until I have further opportunities 

 of observing their habits." 



Young. — The young are at first entirely covered with soft 

 white down. Their feet are yellow, the claws dusky, inclin- 

 ing to flesh-colour at the base. The first plumage, when the 

 feathers are but partially grown, is dark greyish-brown on the 

 upper parts, the feathers terminally margined with light red, 

 and on the lower parts light red barred with dusky. When 

 fully fledged they have the cere greenish-yellow, the bill dusky 

 at the end, pale blue with some yellow at the base, the iris 

 light brown, the feet greenish-yellow. The feathers of the 

 upper parts are greyish-brown, margined with light red, that 

 colour prevailing on part of the hind-neck, those of the nape 

 white excepting the tips, the scapulars with two large reddish- 

 white spots ; the tail-feathers are wood-brown, the two mid- 

 dle with four, the lateral with six dusky bands. The lower 

 parts are dull reddish-white, the throat and part of the neck 

 with longitudinal linear dusky streaks, the breast and sides 

 barred with dusky, there being generally four dusky bars on 

 each feather, that toward the end heart-shaped and pointed ; 

 the lower tail-coverts reddish-white ; the lower wing-coverts 

 pale reddish, barred with dusky ; the spaces between the dark 

 bands on the inner webs of the quills reddish -white. 



Progress toward Maturity. — In the first plumage there is 

 little difl^erence between the male and the female. In the se- 

 cond, the male and female are of the same greyish-brown above, 

 the feathers narrowly bordered with light red. The lower 

 parts are more tinged with red, and more broadly barred, in 



