OF NEW ENGLAND. 353 
the wings are partially opened and shut in a nervous manner, 
as if the bird were anxious to be off again in the pursuit of 
game.” 
Says Dr. Wood: ‘This bird when sitting on a tree so 
closely resembles a pigeon that it will oftentimes deceive the 
most expert hunter. One of the specimens brought me was 
shot for a pigeon, and the mistake was not discovered until 
the bird was picked up. It is from this striking singularity 
that I suppose it derives its name.” 
(d). ‘The notes of the Pigeon Hawk, heard chiefly in spring, 
are quite characteristic, but, nevertheless, are not easily de- 
scribed. In fact, it is almost or wholly impossible to know the 
cries of our hawks, unless learned directly from nature. 
(D) sparvertus. (American) Sparrow Hawk. American 
Kestrel. 
(In New England, a summer-resident, locally distributed.) 
(a). About eleven inches long. Crown, ashy-blue, usually 
with a chestnut patch of varying size. Head, otherwise white, 
with generally seven large black markings, including one on 
the nape. Tail, often surrounded by white ; and broadly (sub-) 
tipped with black. Primaries, etc., black, with imperfect white 
bars. Otherwise: — 92, brown above, becoming chestnut on 
the tail, nearly everywhere black-barred. Beneath, white; 
breast (often buffy or reddish, and) streaked with black (or 
dark brown). @, smaller, and witht few or no black bars or 
streaks. Wing-coverts, ashy-blue (sometimes spotted with 
black). 
(b). The eggs are generally deposited in the hollow of a 
tree,—often of one rather isolated, a very rare circumstance in 
the case of other hawks. The eggs, four or five in number, or 
even more, are laid in Massachusetts about the middle of May. 
Two, taken from my cabinet, are fair specimens. One meas- 
ures 1°35 1-20 of an inch, and is very light brown, with small 
blotches of reddish ‘*Vandyke.” The other measures 1:35 
1-20 of an inch, is somewhat spherical and is finely freckled 
with two shades of russet, confluently so at the two ends. 
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