The Birds ot Cooklam wed te Weighbouviwad, 
(Continued from page 128.) 
BY R. B. SHARPE, 
Sub-fam. AccrPirRin®. 
Accipiter. 
8. Accipiter nisus. The Sparrow Hawk. 
HIS bird is not so often observed as the Kestrel, but is still 
of common occurrence, and breeds in the Duchess of 
Sutherland’s woods at Cliefden. I cannot from my own 
experience justify the trivial appellation of Syarrow-hawk, for I 
think that in most instances (especially as megards the females), 
it preys upon Blackbirds, Thrushes, Starlings, and Larks, while 
Mr. Briggs, who has had much experience in Cambridgeshire and 
at Billing-bear,* says that it justly incurs the animosity of the 
keepers by the ravages it commits among the young Partridges 
_ and Pheasants. Nor is its attack confined to the young bird, for 
_ Mr. Burton, of Wardour Street, London, tells me he once marked 
| a covey of Partridges to the other side of a small ridge, and 
having crept unobserved to within range, was preparing to flush 
them, when a Sparrowhawk darted down, seized one of the birds, 
and would have carried it off, had not a shot terminated his 
q career. The present species gets remarkably bold when impelled 
by hunger, and has been known to carry off game in the face of 
the sportsman, several instances also being recorded of its having 
dashed through glass windows to seize cage-birds. These hawks 
_ often pursue flocks of Starlings, and Mr. Briggs and I have twice 
_ been witness to a chase. ‘The first time was on the 2nd of June, 
1867, when we were both in my father’s garden, and were first 
' 
attracted by a commotion among the Swallows and Martins 
: ‘above our heads. Looking up, we perceived a Sparrowhawk 
‘ sailing across towards Clicfden Woods, surrounded on all sides by 
the screaming Hivundines. Presently a flock of twenty or thirty 
_ Starlings hove in sight, when the hawk darted off towards them, 
_ * This place was in the first part of the paper written Bulling Bare in 
_ error,—R. B. 8. 
