VOL. X.] HABITS OF SPARROW-HAWK. 37 



After the brooding is over she perches in a tree upwind 

 from the nest ; sometimes she selects a dead leafless 

 branch full in the sun, sometimes one very much shaded : 

 sometimes receiving all the wind to be got, sometimes 

 equally carefully avoiding it. In the selected place 

 she will stay, for hours if need be, until the cock calls 

 her. Much of the time is spent in preening and cleaning. 

 When she does her toilet she is always most particular 

 about the wings and tail ; the flight feathers are each 

 drawn through the bill two or three times at least. 



Very seldom did we see the hen attempt to capture 

 anything ; Adams once saw one take a Greenfinch 

 close to the hut, and I think the same bird also took a 

 Long-tailed Tit just below the hut ; at any rate, she 

 shpped off the nest and was back in a minute or two 

 and had obviously fed. 



When the yoimg begin to leave the nest, the hen's 

 movements are harder to follow and become, to a certain 

 extent, a matter of conjecture. Watching from the 

 hut breaks down because the noise made in climbing 

 up makes the young shift to another tree. The cock 

 then seems to attend to those that have gone while the 

 hen watches over the rest. I have seen her stay on 

 the same perch for more than three hours at a stretch. 

 In that time I heard the cock take food to each of the 

 young that had left the tree. 



