898 SPARROW-HAWK 
akin to the Gothic Sparva, SPARROW), perhaps the commonest Bird- 
of-Prey now left in the British Islands, and the only one that in 
these days can be said to be practically detrimental to the game- 
preserver. It is the Accipiter nisus of most modern authors, stand- 
ing as the type of the genus of that name (HAWK, p. 412). Too 
well known to need description here, there must be few observers 
of nature who have net at one time or another witnessed the con- 
sternation that prevails among small birds on the unexpected and 
rapid dash among them of a Sparrow-Hawk which, still and motion- 
less in some convenient tree or bush, has been biding its oppor- 
tunity, while the victim, which the aggressor rarely misses, is 
Sparrow-Hawk. Male and female. 
as speedily snatched away to be eaten in covert seclusion, for the 
Sparrow-Hawk shews itself in the open as little as possible. The 
species is widely distributed throughout the palarctic area 
from Ireland to Japan, extending also to northern India and 
Egypt, while a second species 4. brevipes (by some placed in the 
group Micronisus and by others called an Astur), only appears in 
the south-east of Europe and the adjoining parts of Asia Minor 
and Persia. In North America the place of the former is taken by 
two very distinct species, a small one, 4. fuscus, known in Canada 
and the United States as the Sharp-shinned Hawk, and 4. coopert 
(by some placed in another genus, Cooperastur), which is larger and 
has not so northerly a range. In South America there are four or 
five more, including 4. tinus, before mentioned (p. 412) as the 
smallest of all, while a species not much larger, 4. minullus, together 
