THE SPARROW HAWK 219 



to be, for its size, by far the gamest-looking of 

 the tribe, an opinion which I think many people 

 will readily endorse. As my friend observed to 

 me, * a sparrow hawk does look such a fighting 

 bird.' The sparrow hawk and the goshawk are 

 what are termed short-winged hawks, and are the 

 only two of this description. In the training of 

 hawks for sport, it is, of course, necessary to 

 exercise them, in order to strengthen them and 

 mature their powers. This process is termed 

 4 hacking,' and consists in allowing the birds, when 

 they have been trained to come to whistle or call, 

 to fly at large. With the sparrow hawk and 

 goshawk this is rendered less necessary, inas- 

 much as they get their power of flight at 

 once. All the other hawks, being long-winged, 

 require to be hacked, unless they have been 

 reclaimed. 



Mr. Corballis, in his work ' Forty-five Years of 

 Sport, 1 declares the sparrow hawk to be the 

 boldest of all hawks, and states that he has killed 

 as many as twenty couple of quail in one day with 

 one female sparrow hawk, the bird in question 

 having been reclaimed and trained by him, with 

 the assistance of a Syrian falconer, in the short 

 space of a fortnight. 



Some few years ago, when shooting on the 

 Hampshire downs, I observed a sparrow hawk 

 busily engaged in devouring a bird which it had 

 killed. Not wishing to walk over the ground 

 which lay in front of me, I fired two or three 



