154 SPARROW-HAWK. 



friend of his, " on climbing a tree to one of their 

 nests, and when within a very few yards of it, 

 was attacked by the female bird, and his cap, at 

 one stroke, sent to the ground." 



The male has the upper plumage of an uniform 

 pale blackish grey ; tip of the tail and nuchal 

 collar white ; quills clove brown, darkest at the 

 tips, with clouded bars on their inner webs. 

 Tail with a dark bar after the white tip, shading 

 upwards, and three bars afterwards indistinct 

 above, decidedly marked beneath. Auriculars, 

 buff orange, darker along the shafts. Throat and 

 chin pale ochraceous, with dark shafts ; breast, 

 belly, vent, and thighs, ochraceous ; shafts dark, 

 and thickly marked with reddish buff orange ; 

 in the centre of the belly tinted with brown ; 

 under tail coverts white. Length about twelve 

 inches ; from shoulders to tip of fifth quill, eight 

 and a quarter. 



The female, with the upper parts clove 

 brown, darkest on the crown, and sometimes 

 tinted with rufous ; on the tips of the auriculars, 

 above the eyes, and on the hind head, the tips of 

 the feathers only are dark, and the light bases 

 appearing produce a pale line above the eyes, 

 and a variegation with white on the hind head ; 

 the quills and tail are barred with narrow darker 

 bands, conspicuous on the under surface of both. 

 The under parts are of a delicate yellowish 



