140 BRITISH BIRDS. 
anxiety for her home. The male Sparrow-Hawk, as is the case with many 
birds of this order, often soars above the nesting-place to an immense 
height, wheeling round and round with wings expanded. But one brood 
is reared in the year, although, if the first eggs are taken, as has been 
already remarked, others will be laid. The young are fed assiduously ; 
and at no time of the year are the Sparrow- Hawks so bold and venturesome 
as now, when they have hungry young to cater for. It is then the game- 
coverts yield their tribute of young chicks ; it is then the smaller birds are 
even more sorely pressed ; and it is then they will dash silently and swiftly 
‘into the poultry-yards and bear off the young chicks so quickly. When 
the young reach maturity, which is but slowly, they are abandoned by 
their parents, and quit their birthplace for ever. 
The eyrie of the Sparrow-Hawk is a very interesting place to visit when 
the young are almost ready for flight. Young Sparrow-Hawks exhibit 
great diversity of size and colour. Indeed there are seldom two in the 
same nest alike when they have attained their first plumage. In the nest 
are pellets and feathers in abundance—not the feathers of game-birds, as 
a rule, but usually of the smaller Finches and Warblers, notably of the 
Chaffinch and Willow-Warbler. Animals are sometimes brought, as the 
fur of the rabbit and the mole tells us pretty plainly. A few days before 
the young gain the use of their wings they spend the greater part of their 
time upon the tree, flyimg from branch to branch, trying and strength- 
ening their pinions, and uttering their peculiar tremulous notes. Even 
before they are fully fledged, if the nest is visited, the young birds will 
scramble out onto the branches, using their beaks to assist them, and 
usually getting quite out of reach. The leaves and branches of the tree 
round and about the nest are white with their droppings, just as though 
they had been whitewashed ; yet but little or no smell pervades the place. 
Before finally taking wing and quitting their birthplace for ever, they 
repair to the neighbouring trees, where they are for a few days more fed 
and tended by their parents, until strong and matured enough to gain their 
own living. 
Such a bold and ravenous bird as the Sparrow-Hawk very naturally 
receives no favour from the game-preservers ; he is shown no mercy, is shot 
and trapped whenever the occasion is afforded. That the Sparrow-Hawk is a 
destructive bird I am not going to deny; but certainly there are some few 
good points in his character which deserve a passing notice. The small 
birds are certainly kept in check partly through his agency; and the Ring- 
Doves (a perfect pest to the farmer in some districts) are his favourite food 
when those birds congregate towards the autumnal equinox to feed on the 
acorns and beech-mast. ‘Then, again, the taking of weakly birds and animals 
by the Sparrow-Hawk serves to keep disease away and _ preserve that 
healthy standard of perfection which Nature inexorably demands. 
