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SPARROW-HAWK. 
GWEPIA, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH. 
Accipiter Fringillarius, SHaw. SeELsy. 
Falco nisus, Linnzus, LATHAM. 
Buteo nisus, FLEMING. 
Accipiter. Accipio—To take. Fringillarius. Fringilla—A Finch. 
‘Take it for all in all, there is perhaps no bird of the 
Hawk kind more daring and spirited than the one before 
us—next to the Kestrel, the most common of the British 
species of that tribe. It hunts in large woods, as well as 
in the open fields, and may frequently be seen sweeping over 
hedges and ditches in every part of the country. In the 
winter the males and females, like the chaffinches, appear to 
separate: the motive is of course unknown. 
The Sparrow-Hawk is very numerons in various parts of 
the world; throughout Europe, from Russia, Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway, to Spain; in Africa, even as far as the Cape of 
Good Hope; in Asia Minor and Japan; but does not occur, 
I believe, in America. It is numerous also in Ireland and 
Scotland, and occurs likewise in the Hebrides. 
It prefers cultivated to uncultivated districts, even when 
the latter abound in wood, though wooded districts are its 
favourite resorts. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns says that in 
Cambridgeshire the males are much less frequently seen than 
the females; and this observation appears to be also general 
in its application, not as we may suppose from any disparity 
sn numbers between the two, but from the female being of a 
more bold, and the male of a more shy and retiring disposition. 
The organ of combativeness, according to phrenologists, 
would appear to be largely developed in this bird: it seems 
to have universal letters of marque, and to act the part of a 
