82 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 



A.. O. 1/. ^o. 360. (Falco jparijericuj.) 



RANGE. 



Whole of North America east of tho Rocky Mountains. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length lo to 12 inches; extent 21 inches; tail 5.25 inches. Feet yellow- 

 ish brown. Eye brown. Bill blackish. 



Male. — Top of head blue gray, with a chestnut patch in middle of crown. 

 Hind neck, back, rump, and tail, reddish brown. Back barred with black. 

 Broad band of black across end of tail. Crescent back of the neck, also 

 on each side of the head back of the eye, black. Black band extending 

 from the eye downwards. Breast varies from white to reddish, spotted 

 with black on lower part. Wings slaty blue spotted with black on the 

 shoulder. Primaries nearly black. Wings narrow and pointed. 



Female. — Back, wing coverts and tail barred with dusky. Breast more 

 thickly spotted than on the male. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



The nest is generally in the cavity of a tree, either a natural one or one 

 formed by a woodpecker. Lacking these sites they will build in most any 

 place where they can find the semblance of a cavity. The eggs are laid 

 from early in March in the south, to the latter part of May in the northern 

 part of its range. They number from four to six, and have a white ground 

 color, sprinkled and blotched with chestnut and reddish brown. They 

 vary very much in the marking, some being nearly white, just barely 

 sprinkled with red, while others have the ground color nearly obscured by 

 the markings. The blotches are frequently heaviest at the smaller end. 

 There is much variation in shape also, sometimes being nearly round. 



HABITS 



This is one of the hawks against above. When they can choose as 



which little can be said. They do they wish, they eat little else except 



little harm and much good. It is not grasshoppers. Their slender feet 



because of their diminutive size (for are perfectly adapted to holding 



they are the smallest of our hawks) these pests. These same little slen- 



that they do so little harm, for they der, but strong feet, with their sharp 



are strong and active, and one has claws are equally well fitted for 



been known to kill a quail, a larger holding small birds, and it is fortu- 



bird than himself. In fact they fre- nate that they prefer a different diet, 



quently drive other hawks from the Soon after the first of April they 



vicinity of their nests, by their val- commence looking about for a place 



iant and repeated assaults from for their nest. Most of them find a 



