American Sparrow Hawk 223 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK 



Called also: Killy Hawk; Rusty-crowned Falcon; 

 Mouse Hawk 



Just such an extended branch as a shrike or a 

 kingbird would use as a lookout while searching 

 the landscape o'er for something to eat, the 

 little sparrow hawk chooses for the same purpose. 

 He is not much larger than either of these birds, 

 scarcely longer than a robin. Because he is a 

 hawk, with the family possession of eyes that 

 are both telescope and miscroscope, he can 

 detect a mouse, sparrow, garter snake, spider 

 or grasshopper, farther away than seems to us 

 possible. 



Every farmer's boy knows this beautiful 

 little rusty-red hawk, with slaty-blue cap and 

 wings, and creamy-buff spotted sides, if not by 

 sight then by sound, as it calls ktll-ee, kill-ee 

 ktll-ee, across the fields. It does not soar and 

 revolve in a merry-go-round on high like its 

 cousins, but flies swiftly and gracefully, keeping 

 near enough to the ground to see everything that 

 creeps or hops through the grass. Dropping 

 suddenly, like a stone, upon its victim (usually 

 a grasshopper) it seizes it in its small, sharp, 

 fatal talons and bears it away to a favourite 

 perch, there to enjoy it at leisure. 



