100 THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



light brown; but, like all coloured eggs, there are hardly two alike, 

 although each species bears a general similarity — like the human 

 face. They are generally pretty round, inclining to the shape of 

 the owl's. The young are at first covered with white down, and 

 fly about the end of June. They are easily distinguished the 

 first year by being lighter in colour, and the bars on the breast less 

 distinct than in the adult. As most of our ornithologists dispute 

 about it making its own nest — including Lelley and M'Gillivray 

 — I can make this clear from personal observation from my own 

 note-books : — " On Saturday, May 29th, 1858, I ascertained the 

 doubted fact of the sparrow-hawk making its own nest. I went 

 over the Eden in a boat to Tentsmuir. On rambling through 

 the muir in search of eggs I met the shepherd, who told me 

 he knew several nests — one a hawk's — in the Old Fir Park. 1 

 went with him ; the nest was in the ' breek ' of a stunted white 

 birch tree, in an open part of the thinly-planted wood, near the 

 outskirt ; it was ten feet up, the hawk was sitting on her eggs, 

 her head away from us, and as we approached quietly over the 

 soft grass, I shook the tree before she flew. She slipped off and 

 skimmed away, keeping under the tops of the trees till out 

 of sight. I went up and carefully inspected this nest. It was 

 14 J inches extreme diameter and 8 j by 2 \ deep inside, very like 

 a wood pigeon's, only a little larger, composed of hazel and birch 

 twigs, and one or two larch and Scotch fir, lined with finer twigs 

 and one or two of her own small feathers and a sprinkling of her 

 down, with a few of the characteristic chips of Scotch fir bark 

 — all recently formed. He told me that he saw her making her 

 nest, and that she laid her first egg on Saturday, 22nd, the 

 second on the 23rd, the third on the 24th, the fourth on the 

 25th, and the fifth on Wednesday, the 26th of May, and began 

 to sit on Friday, the 28th — the day before I wrote this. On 

 Thursday, the 27th he inspected the nest ; there was then no 

 down in it, so she must have plucked it off when she began to 

 sit." To corroborate this : — On the 22nd, the day the shepherd 

 noted this hawk laying her first egg, I climbed up to another 

 hawk's nest, in a strip of wood (now cut down) near Allanhill, 

 about 2J miles from St Andrews. It was on a spruce fir, 35 

 feet up, and also entirely new, of twigs, some moss, wool, 

 and fur, and a few hairs sparsely blended, and the characteristic 

 few pieces of Scotch fir bark. There w r ere five eggs in it. They 

 varied much in colour and shape from the Tentsmuir ones. 

 They were If inches by 1 J, the others were If by If. I got 

 other three nests in May — on the 13th and 14th — the same year : 



