408 SHERMAN, N«8i Life of the Sparrow Hawk. LJuly 



noted thai the eggs were left uncovered nearly or quite an hour, 

 while both birds sat in their tree preening themselves, an exercise 

 in which they spent a vast amount of time. 



The first egg proved infertile, the third one, taken to reduce the 

 number of hawks, also as a souvenir, contained a living embryo. 

 Oi the remaining eggs the second and fourth hatched on June -1. 

 the bird from the former egg was still wet at 7.45 o'clock in the 

 morning, and weighed 154 grains. The following morning at a 

 quarter of eleven o'clock the hawklet from the fifth egg was found 



not thoroughly dry, weighing H>t> grains, and showing that it had 

 been fed. The bird from the sixth egg still wet. and weighing 139 

 grains, was found at half past eight o'clock on the morning of 



,111111- 6. These data plainly show that the period o( incubation 



must have keen thirty days for the fifth egg, and twenty-nine days 

 for the sixth egg. 



Very soon after hatching the voting would bite vigorously at a 

 finger that touched their bills, opening their eyes for an instant as 

 they did so, but not until they were two or three days old did they 

 keep their eyes open longer than a few seconds at a time. From 

 their first day they uttered a faint cry, when expecting food, that 

 suggested the scream o( the mature Sparrow Hawk, also peeps 

 similar to a chicken but more mournful. This peeping was con- 

 tinuous while they were ont o( the nest. There was a third cry, 

 difficult to describe, which they uttered when fed. 



On lime 13 the first manifestations of fear were detected, when 

 the hawklets flattened themselves on the bottom o( the nest, but 

 such signs were rare for a few days thereafter. It was on the 

 following day that for the first time they were seen ranged against 

 the sides of the nest their backs to the wall: this arrangement 

 appeared to be the normal one, thus the center of the nest was given 

 to the one that was eating, or to the mother, when she came to 

 feed them. When two weeks old they could run quite well; when 

 placed on the floor of the blind they ran to the inner angles formed 

 by the studdings and the walls, where with backs well braced they 

 faced the foe, and a few days later met with savage elaws an 

 approaching hand. 



At a very early age their alert bearing together with their bright 

 eyes and snow -white plumage made a picture long to be remembered 



