( 2 ) 



SOME BREEDING-HABITS OF THE 

 SPARROW-HAWK. 



(1) The Effect of Rain. 



BY 



J. H. OWEN, 



For some years, with the help of some of the members 

 of the Felsted School Scientific Society, I have been 

 studying the Sparrow-Hawk {Accipiter n. nisus) very 

 carefully and regularly. On more than one occasion we 

 found nests in suitable places for building observation- 

 huts, but these nests were always robbed. In 1915, how- 

 ever, we were more fortunate and watched from huts two 

 nests during the time they contained nestlings. In all we 

 spent just nine weeks in watching operations, one or other 

 of us being in the hut whenever there was a sufhcient 

 interval between school hours to make it worth while. 

 The boys, to whom I am greatly indebted for help in 

 building the huts, watching, and for their notes, were 

 A. P. Adams, C. J. Johnson and F. N. Stocker. 



The period during which the young remain in the nest 

 is twenty-eight to twenty-nine days from the date of 

 the hatching of each. Until the youngest is thirteen 

 or fourteen days old, the hen broods almost constantly, 

 and during this time there is not much difference in the 

 brooding in wet and fine weather. In wet weather she 

 does not puff out her breast feathers quite so much, but 

 tries to expand herself sideways so as to cover as great 

 an area as possible. To this end she shghtly raises her 

 wings from her body but without opening them much. 

 She is also very careful to see that the heads of all the 

 young are protected from the rain. 



Whenever rain faUs, the hen hurries back to the nest 

 and quickly commences to brood. She spends very little 

 time looking about, but proceeds to push her way over 

 the young. Now and then she halts and looks romid to 

 see where the youngest is, and is particularly careful 



