SPARROWHAWK. 25 



chickens, in tlie very face of a spectator, and their fierce- 

 ness in defence of their nests and young is well known. 

 Mr. T. M. Spalding, who has had many opportunities 

 of observing the habits of most of our British Baptores 

 in a wild state, assures me that on one occasion, when 

 climbing to the nest of a pair of these birds, the female 

 kept dashing past him again and again, almost brush- 

 ing his face with her wings, and on the arrival of the 

 male, attracted by her cries, she became so violent that, 

 as he laid his hand on a branch near the nest, she 

 swooped over it, leaving the marks of her talons in deep 

 scratches. The hobby in like cases is very fierce, but 

 differs in its actions, pitching up and down in its 

 anxious flight instead of swooping horizontally over the 

 intruder's head. 



A curious instance of the sparrowhawk pairing with 

 the hobby occurred at Witchingham in 1851, as re- 

 corded by Mr. L. H. Irby in the "Zoologist," p. 3276. 

 In this case five eggs were laid in a ring-dove's nest, 

 placed in a fir tree, of which one was taken by a game- 

 keeper, who unfortunately shot both the old birds as 

 soon as the other eggs were hatched, thus leaving the 

 young to starve, and losing the opportmiity of observing 

 the result as to plumage of this cross breeding. The 

 egg first procured from the nest is described as having 

 **more red about it than is usual in those of the 

 sparrowhawk, but less than in those of the hobby.'* 

 Mr. Irby also refers to a similar fact in another part of 

 the county, where the birds were shot before any eggs 

 were laid. The great difference in size between the 

 male and female in most of the Eaptorial tribe is in 

 none, perhaps, so conspicuous as in this species. A 

 pair which were weighed by Mr. J. H. Gurney, exhibited 

 the following extraordinary difference : — Male, 5 oz. ; 

 female, 10 1 oz., being more than double the weight of 

 her partner. A young male sparrowhawk, perfectly 



