314 



THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



short distance its flight is rapid in the extreme, and it will 

 take Partridges, Magpies, Landrails, Water Hens, and other 

 smaller quarry, in a manner by no means inferior to some 

 of the Falcons. It gets sooner upon the wing, or darts off 

 the first with more rapidity than the Falcons, and is there- 

 fore better suited for bush-hawking," ^ 



The nest, which is constructed of sticks and slender twigs 

 like that of a Wood Pigeon, but larger, is generally found in 

 a plantation, and usually in a Scotch, or spruce fir. Some- 

 times, however, the eggs, four or five in number, bluish 

 white, blotched with reddish brown, are deposited in the 

 deserted nest of a Magpie or Crow. The old Heronry 

 Wood at Paxton is a favourite resort of this Hawk, and 

 here its eyry has been frequently found in some of the tall 

 Scotch firs, one being discovered, with four young, in June 

 1886. 



1 Falconry, by J. C. Belany, 1841, p. 169. 





