130 The Sparrow Hawk 
fact that it is a hawk and has been known even occa- 
sionally to capture a bird or a chicken is, in the eyes 
of many people, reason enough for exterminating it. 
They do not stop to consider the great amount of 
good it has done in destroying mice alone. From 
the nature of its food, this bird should be protected 
by law, instead of being a mark for every passing 
gunner. 
The sparrow hawk lives in harmony with most other 
birds, even when nesting near them. Last summer 
I discovered two old maple stubs standing about 
twenty feet apart by the edge of a meadow; in one 
of these were flickers nesting, in the other were three 
hungry young sparrow hawks always clamoring to 
be fed. I watched these two families until the young 
of each flew away, and not once did I observe the 
sparrow hawks troubling the flickers. On the con- 
trary, the sparrow hawks were a help, keeping all 
larger hawks and crows at a distance. 
The blue jay appears to have a great dislike for 
the sparrow hawk, and on several occasions I have 
seen three or more blue jays noisily pursuing one 
hawk. I remember an incident of this kind that 
happened in the autumn of 1900 in a large apple- 
orchard, where I was photographing the nest of a 
red squitrel. ‘When I irst “enteted the orcharat 
