898 



SPARRO IV-HA WK 



akin to the Gothic Sparva, Sparrow), perhaps the commonest Bird- 

 of-Prey now left in the British Islands, and the only one that in 

 these days can be said to be practically detrimental to the game- 

 preserver. It is the Accijnter nisus of most modern authors, stand- 

 ing as the type of the genus of that name (Hawk, p. 412). Too 

 well known to need description here, there must be few observers 

 of nature who have not at one time or another witnessed the con- 

 sternation that prevails among small birds on the unexpected and 

 rapid dash among them of a Sparrow-Hawk which, still and motion- 

 less in some convenient tree or bush, has been biding its oppor- 

 tunity, while the victim, which the aggressor rarely misses, is 



Sparrow-Hawk. Male and female. 



as speedily snatched away to be eaten in covert seclusion, for the 

 Sparrow-Hawk shews itself in the open as little as possible. The 

 species is Avidely distributed throughout the palaearctic area 

 from Ireland to Ja^^an, extending also to northern India and 

 Egypt, while a second species A. hrevipes (by some placed in the 

 group Micronisus and by others called an Astur), only appears in 

 the south-east of Europe and the adjoining parts of Asia Minor 

 and Persia. In North America the place of the former is taken by 

 two very distinct species, a small one, A. fuscus, known in Canada 

 and the United States as the Sharp-shinned Hawk, and A. cooperi 

 (by some placed in another genus, Cooperastur), which is larger and 

 has not so northerly a range. In South America there are four or 

 five more, including A. tinus, before mentioned (p. 412) as the 

 smallest of all, Avhile a species not much larger, A. minuUiis, together 



