V "'i-m. X X i Sherman, Neat Life of the Sparrow Hawk. 411 



very dainty and graceful; tins bending of her head was apparently 

 necessitated by the hooked beaks <»r both. Sometimes the pieces 

 served were s<> large thai they were swallowed with difficulty. No 

 more than live minutes were occupied in these feedings. At first 

 the food served was "dressed meat," and the remainders of the 

 least were carried out by the mother, and eaten by her in the dead 

 willow. On June 17, she broughl in the body of a half-grown 

 ground squirrel with the skin still on, probably I frightened her out 

 prematurely, since she lefl the remnant of the squirrel. It was not 

 nniil a week later thai she began regularly to leave the quarry for 

 the hawklets to feed themselves. Thereafter she entered the nest 

 with the food, hut remained inside less than a minute, sometimes 



no more than twenty seconds. 



Experiments were made with the nestlings to see if they would 

 eal living animals. When quite young a blow-fly was given, and 

 some days later newly hatched English Sparrows were put into their 

 months, Imt. all were rejected. On June 30, thirty-three English 

 Sparrow nestlings and eggs were given them, among them were two 

 live fledglings nearly ready to leave the nest. The eggs and the 

 dead Sparrows were eaten, hut the live Sparrows remained all day 

 in the hawk nest uninjured. It appeared to he a case not of the 

 "lion and the lamb" hut of the Sparrow and the Sparrow Hawk 

 lying down together. This escape from the eye of the mother bird 

 must have been due to her very brief visits. 



In the spring while the question: 'Shall or shall not the Sparrow 

 Hawks he allowed to remain and increase their kind? ' was pending, 

 all available ornithological literature was searched to learn if 

 possible the degree of danger from these Falcons, that was threat- 

 ening our birds. Besides one writer's statement that to a family of 

 Sparrow Hawks twelve small birds were brought in one day, there 

 was the reliable data furnished by the examination of stomachs of 

 this species. The figures given by Dr. Fisher show that eighteen 

 pel- cent of the stomachs contained the remains of birds. This 

 is tin- same percentage that, was found for Screech Owls. In 

 previous years we had harbored these predaccous little villains, 

 and some small birds had survived, therefore it was decided to 

 give the Sparrow Hawks a trial at the same time to watch closely 

 their relations with other birds. The first birds disturbed by them 



