104 THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



climb the tree. The young hawks were almost suffocated 

 by the dead birds about them. The boy threw down no 

 less than sixteen larks, yellow hammers, chaffinches, hedge 

 sparrows, and green linnets. He took the young hawks home 

 and fed them, as they were starving in the midst of plenty, the 

 mother not being there to divide it. The male no doubt, like 

 the head of the human family, considered he had done his share 

 of the marriage contract by procuring the food, leaving his better- 

 half to dispose of it at home — her natural and proper sphere ; 

 not like political female males, who spend their time and mar 

 domestic duties, as well as public ones, at public boards and 

 canvassing for votes. The male at first waited and wondered 

 Avhy his wife did not come at his call to fulfil her part of the 

 matrimonial duties ; but, impelled by Nature to perform his 

 share when she did not come to him, he went home with the 

 birds himself, never dreaming that his abundant care, instead of 

 feeding his young, was smothering them. Mr Selby says — " In 

 a nest, with five young hawks, I found a lapwing, two blackbirds, 

 a thrush, and two green linnets, recently killed and partly 

 plucked." And, quite recently, Adam Cleghorn, writing to the 

 Dundee News, from Marcus, Forfar, on March 14th, 1888, says — 



"On June 23rd, 1887, a female sparrow-hawk was shot near her nest. 

 Two days afterwards, on the 25th, a boy climbed the tree to see what was 

 in the nest. He found two young kawks and a number of dead birds, no 

 doubt intended for food to them. Having a tame owl at home, he took the 

 dead birds, but left the young hawks. Next morning the gentleman who shot 

 the hawk, along with a friend, determined to destroy the nest and its callow 

 brood, so they shot at it until it was brought down, when the astonishing 

 number of forty-seven freshly-killed birds were found to have been brought 

 to the nest. We counted the birds, and, taking an interest in these matters, 

 I append the names and numbers of each species of bird found : — One 

 young pheasant, six blackbirds, four sparrows, five robins, five chaffinches, 

 six thrushes, four linnets, seven tits of various kinds, two wrens, two yellow 

 hammers, two hedge sparrows, and three larks — in all forty-seven birds. 

 They were both young and old birds, and the feathers plucked off, or nearly 

 so, but few of them touched in any other way. From this I infer that the 

 female only tears the prey to pieces, while the male captures and brings it 

 to the nest to supply the wants of the mother and her young." 



From the disparity in size of the male and female, and 

 difference in plumage towards maturity, no bird was more liable 

 to be split up into different species than the sparrow-hawk 

 (except the hen harrier) — some authors, in their anxiety to 

 add to science, creating or inventing more species than honest 

 Nature ever made. But time has shown that Ave have only one 

 bold little sparrow-hawk — not only in Fife, but in the British 

 Isles. Like all birds, it suits itself to circumstances in making 



