I vividly remember my joy, when quite a small boy, at finding one lying dead 

 upon the gravel at the front door one Sunday morning, having killed itself in 

 a vain endeavour to reach a Sparrow which had got into the house ; when 

 stuffed, this bird formed the centre-piece of my collection for many a day. 



The food of the Sparrow Hawk is chiefly composed of small birds, from 

 a Blackbird downwards ; but they will strike and successfully kill Wood Pigeons, 

 and I have seen one pounce on a Water Hen as it ran across a grass field ; he 

 was, however, quite unable to carry off his prey in this instance, and was caught 

 in a snare set beside it some twenty minutes afterwards. He also varies his 

 food with an occasional young rabbit, and will take mice, water-rats, or frogs. 

 The refuse of the Sparrow Hawk's food, like that of all birds of prey, is ejected 

 in the form of pellets : great numbers of these, as well as the larger feathers of 

 the victims, may be found round some tree stump, rock, or stone in the middle 

 of the wood or thicket, where he is wont to retire to feed. 



The Sparrow Hawk is rather a late breeder, eggs being rarely laid before 

 April. The nest is usually placed half-way up some tree on a large branch, 

 and is nearly always built against the trunk. It is fairly large, and is always 

 made of dead sticks, the larger and coarser ones forming the foundation, 

 smaller and finer ones the shallow cup in which the eggs are laid. The nest 

 may be found in many kinds of trees, principally in firs in Scotland and in 

 England in the oak or beech. Curiously enough, the Sparrow Hawk does not 

 always begin to lay as soon as the nest is finished, but often puts off several days 

 before depositing the first egg ; she begins to sit as soon as it is laid, and the 

 others are laid at irregular intervals, so that the nestlings when hatched are 

 usually of quite different sizes and ages. The nest, and often part of the tree in 

 the immediate vicinity, are generally covered with a whitish down from the bird's 

 plumage, and there are usually a few feathers of various descriptions in the nest. 



The eggs vary in number from four to six, five being the most common 

 number in a clutch ; they are rather round in shape, and are very handsomely 

 marked as a rule. The ground colour is a delicate bluish-green, and the spots, 

 which are often very bold and striking in outline, are rich reddish-brown of 

 various shades. Some specimens are so sparingly marked that the spots are 

 almost invisible, while others are richly clouded and spotted all over, almost 

 entirely hiding the ground colour; the markings are often collected together 

 in a sort of zone round the large end of the egg. They vary in length from 

 1-7 to i -4 inches, and in breadth from 1-4 to 1-2 inches. 



The young when first hatched are covered with a whitish down, fragments 

 of which still adhere to the feathers for some time after they can fly. 



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