ACCIPITEB. 403 



Coloration. Adult male. Upper parts slaty grey, some birds 

 darker than others, the white bases of the feathers showing more 

 or less on the nape and supercilia ; feathers of scapulars, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts, and sometimes of the back, dark-shafted ; 

 quills dark brown above, whitish beneath, with broad blackish cross- 

 bands ; tail generally with 4 (sometimes 5) cross-bars on the 

 middle feathers, 5 or 6 on the outer, the last bar broadest and sub- 

 terminal, tips of feathers white ; lower parts white or buff, the 

 feathers more or less distinctly dark-shafted ; breast and flanks 

 very often suffused with rusty red, the throat with a few dark 

 shaft-lines ; the breast, abdomen, and thigh-coverts rather irre- 

 gularly barred with rufous-brown, the bars usually as broad as the 

 interspaces, but in very old birds either rusty red or narrow and 

 dark brown ; under tail -covei'ts white. 



Adult females are browner above, and less rufous beneath, with 

 the darkshafts to the feathers of the breast more conspicuous. 



Young birds are brown above, the feathers with rufous edges at 

 first, the white very conspicuous on the nape and superciUa ; lower 

 parts white, buff, or brownish buff ; feathers of the breast, abdomen, 

 and lower wing-coverts with dark shafts and spade- or heart-shaped 

 rufous-brown spots with dark edges ; these spots pass into bars. 



Bill bluish grey ; cere, legs, and toes yellow, claws black ; irides 

 yellow in young birds, orange in old. 



Sexes very different in size. Length of female about 15 ; tail 7 ; 

 wing 9-5 ; tarsus 2*4 ; mid toe without claw 1'6 ; bill from gape 

 •85 : in the male, length about 13 ; tail G'5 ; wing 8 ; tarsus 2-1. 



Distribution. Throughout Europe and Northern Asia ; a winter 

 visitant to the Peninsula of India, China, and jSTorthern Africa. 

 It is found in the Indian Peninsula in jungly and well wooded 

 hilly tracts, not in dense forest nor in very open country ; it is 

 rare in Bm-ma, and has not been hitherto obtained in Ceylon. It 

 is resident and breeds on the Himalayas ; the Himalayan race, which 

 is rather large (wing in females 10 to 10*5) and very dark-coloured 

 above, in females especially, having been distinguished by Hume 

 as melanoscJiistus. This form, however, cannot be regarded as more 

 than a variety. 



Habits, cfc. The Sparrow-Hawk is everywhere known for its 

 swiftness and courage ; it keeps principally to woodland tracts and 

 glides amongst trees and bushes with marvellous ease. It feeds 

 chiefly on birds and captures them up to the size of a pigeon. It 

 is easily trained, and the female has been taught to take partridges 

 and sand-grouse, but is generally used for smaller prey. It breeds 

 in the Himalayas in May and June, builds a rough nest of sticks 

 on a tree, or takes possession of a deserted crow's nest, and lays 

 usually 4 eggs, but sometimes as many as 6 or 7. These are bluish 

 white, oval, much spotted and blotched with rufous-brown, especially 

 towards the broader end, and measure about 1*7 by 1-3. 



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