THE HAWKS OF NEW ENGLAND. 601 



sneaking from orchard to orchard, and you have to guess at their 

 whereabouts from the cries of the small birds that have nests 

 in the neighborhood. A colony of swallows, however, makes an 

 excellent pack of sky hounds to hunt them with, as they keep 

 directly over the hawk, and by watching their movements you 

 may judge what direction to take in order to head him off. Even 

 if you get a good shot at him you may call yourself lucky if you 

 succeed in bringing him down, for he is harder to hit than snipe 

 or woodcock, and is rarely captured until fairly riddled with shot. 



Merlins are solid, muscular, beautiful little birds, with close- 

 fitting, dark-colored plumage. They are never very numerous, 

 except in the fall, when they come in flights, and are most abun- 

 dant near the seacoast and salt marshes. They fly swiftly and 

 steadily, seldom changing their course, and as sure as one of them 

 starts in pursuit of a bird that bird is doomed, for the merlin sel- 

 dom gives up the chase. 



He is not a difficult bird to shoot, for, though tenacious of life, 

 his flight is steady, and, as a general thing, on being hit by a shot, 

 he turns and flies back in the direction whence he came, giving 

 the sportsman a second chance. 



In my opinion, the sparrow hawk is the handsomest of his 

 race ; his back is bright, golden cinnamon, his wings steely blue 

 and jet black, and" his tail chestnut, with a broad black band ; his 

 breast is beautifully marked with chainlike patterns of black 

 spots. His mate is chestnut above, banded with black. Unlike 

 other hawks, the plumage of these birds does not vary with age. 

 They usually make their appearance in some still, cloudy day, 

 about the last of March, and take up their position in the mead- 

 ows ; from then until September they are always to be seen either 

 perched on the topmost twig of some tall elm or hovering in the 

 air on the lookout for prey. Their nest is in some hollow tree or 

 deserted woodpecker's hole, or even a last year's crow's nest. I 

 have often tried to account for the seemingly friendly relations 

 existing between the sparrow hawks and golden-winged wood- 

 peckers ; both frequently occupy holes in the same branch, and 

 sit side by side on top of some tall stub without the least sign of 

 disagreement, although, unless I am very much mistaken, the 

 sparrow hawk often attacks larger birds, and might easily carry 

 off the young ones when the old birds were absent. 



About the last of June the young hawks are ready to fly, and 

 at once betake themselves to the nearest thick treetop, preferring 

 an evergreen if possible. They appear to enjoy the change from 

 their former stuffy apartments immensely, and preen their feath- 

 ers in the bright sunlight, each waiting patiently its turn to be 

 fed by the parents, who are chasing the half -fledged blackbirds 

 and sparrows about the meadows, or darting after grasshoppers 



