The Sparrow-Hawk 's Larder 



AFTER young sparrow-hawks can fly, their nest is used 

 by the parent birds as a real larder. The young ones 

 may leave the nest, to begin to learn their life's lessons, 

 but return to feast on the supplies of fresh food which 

 the parents bring home. 



In another story of the sparrow-hawk's larder, the 

 contents included fifteen young pheasants, four young 

 partridges, five chickens, a bullfinch, two meadow- 

 pipits, and two larks, all newly killed. This nest was 

 in a thick oak tree ; and a gamekeeper, by lying in 

 wait underneath, was able to shoot the male hawk 

 as he arrived back with a lark in his talons. The 

 female he trapped, and eventually he shot, one after 

 the other, the five young birds as they came back 

 to the nest, uttering cries of hunger. 



While the kestrel is a most useful bird, destroying 

 insects and mice, the sparrow-hawk prefers to feed 

 on birds and on this account has been so persecuted 

 by gamekeepers and farmers as to be now a rare bird 

 in many parts. In consequence, farmers complain of 

 plagues of sparrows and others, which the sparrow- 

 hawk, if he had been spared, would have kept down. 

 The kestrel soars and hovers aloft, but the sparrow- 

 hawk's habit is to chase and skim along by hedges 



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