66 Forest Birds. 
of the hawk, and now they are even following it. <A 
mad frenzy, perhaps, suddenly seizes on them, and 
fear forsakes them momentarily, or, may be, numbers 
give them courage. Possibly they know that the 
hawk, encumbered with one of their number, cannot 
seize another. In olden days, this hawk was much 
prized by falconers, being flown at partridges and 
quails, and it is still used in foreign countries for 
such purpose. 
Next to the kestrel, the Sparrow-hawk is the 
most widely distributed of all our hawks. It delights 
in a wooded country, and may be found in such 
districts throughout England. Im Scotland it is 
common, save in the rocky isles of the Hebrides, 
Orkneys and Shetlands, where it is very rarely found. 
In Ireland, too, wherever there are suitable woods it 
lives and breeds. 
The nest is usually built by the bird itself, but 
sometimes the old or deserted nest of a crow or 
woodpigeon is patched up and used as a nesting-place. 
It is composed of sticks, and lined with fine twigs, 
grass and a few feathers. The one figured in the 
accompanying plate was placed at the end of 
a beech-bough about seventy feet from the ground— 
a dizzy climb. It was very slightly made, and 
evidently belonged to a pair of young birds, as they 
are not so careful as the older ones in making their 
