280 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



tree containing the site, from the time their choice is 

 made, and the frequent visits of the male to the tree while 

 the female is brooding serve as a certain index to the lo- 

 cation of the home. They use the cavity a great deal in 

 their honeymoon, and their actions seem to indicate that 

 they are then nesting. They are far more noisy before 

 the eggs are deposited than during the period of incuba- 

 tion. They are noisiest about the time they determine 

 upon the site. The noticeable courtship of a pair, and the 

 plaintive cries frequently heard in the vicinity of a suit- 

 able cavity, are favorable indications that the site will be 

 used somewhat later. 



It is generally understood that this little falcon is not 

 injurious to the interests of agriculture in its food habits, 

 or at least that it more than compensates the farmer for 

 the occasional harm it does. In gleaning most of its 

 living from the fields, it takes small snakes, mice, lizards, 

 moles, grasshoppers, and crickets. Occasionally it seizes 

 small birds, though it seldom makes the effort to take 

 them when the food mentioned is available. In his oft- 

 quoted "Birds of Kansas," Colonel Goss writes of the 

 sparrow hawk concerning this point as follows : " The bird 

 that suffers most, outside of the horned larks and long- 

 spui's, is the tree sparrow, as it prefers the hedges and 

 small thickets upon the prairies, instead of the wooded 

 lands, for its sheltered home, its food in all such cases 

 being upon the open lands; and whenever there is any 

 snow upon the ground it drifts against the hedges, and 

 forces the little birds to seek the bare spots, quite a dis- 

 tance away, for the seeds on or fallen from the weeds. 

 Here it is that the hawks successfully get in their work, 

 by darting from a perch and striking the sparrow, either 

 upon the ground or before it can reach its hiding-place." 

 In an experiment made by M. deLantrie to determine the 

 actual food of this species, and recorded in ''Birds of 

 Minnesota," page 203, the experimenter says: "I took 

 five little sparrow hawks and put them in a cage. The 

 parents immediately brought them food, and I was not 

 surprised to see that it consisted of twelve mice, four large 

 lizards, and six mole crickets. A meal of like size was 

 )>rought every day for a month. At one time there were 



