28 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



upon some young Partridges, and have several times 

 known one of them to dart through the wire netting 

 at the top of a Pheasant-pen, without injury to itself, 

 though 1 found it impossible subsequently to pass the 

 dead body of the Hawk through the meshes of the 

 said wire. A good many Wood-Pigeons fall victims 

 to the Sparrow-Hawk in the autumn and winter, when 

 they are feeding on acorns and beech-mast in our 

 woods. The Hawk sits motionless and well con- 

 cealed in a tree till a favourable chance offers itself, 

 when it dashes down, and seizing the Pigeon by the 

 head and neck, soon puts an end to its struggles, in 

 spite of the very superior strength of the captured 

 bird. I have had but very little experience of this 

 Hawk in a trained state, but in some instances have 

 heard of it as very useful. The female will take Par- 

 tridges, and both sexes will capture Quails, Land- 

 Rails, Blackbirds, Thrushes, and smaller birds, but 

 they are uncertain tempered, and somewhat difficult 

 to manage, and with some few exceptions falconers do 

 not care much about them. The system of training 

 and flying these short- winged Hawks, viz. Sparrow- 

 Hawk and Goshawk (Astur paluinbarius], is entirely 

 different from that pursued with the Falcons, as the 

 former are not hooded, and will not wait on in the 

 air, but are flown from the fist, but I have perhaps 

 already digressed too much from ornithology to 

 falconry, and must return to my subject. The 

 Sparrow-Hawk generally, 1 think, builds a nest for 

 itself, usually well concealed and at no great height ; 

 the eggs are from four to six, of a bluish white, more 

 or less streaked, spotted, and blotched with a deep 

 red-brown, but are subject to infinite variation in 

 colour. I have twice met with perfectly unspotted 



