COS- HA WKSSPARROW-HA WKS. 



The Sparrow- 

 Hawks. Genus 



Accipiter. 



making raids on the pigeons belonging to the farmers, and sometimes 

 snatching the game from under the very nose of the sportsman." 



The Gos-Hawks are about forty in number, and many of them, though 

 small, are of beautiful plumage, such as the Fijian Astur torquatus and its 

 allies, which are pale grey birds with a rufous collar round their necks and 

 vinous coloured breasts. This group inhabits the Australian region, more 

 especially the Moluccas, and the Papaan Islands. Another group is that of 

 the Indian Shikra (Astur badius), which has allied species in Burma, Africa, 

 and South-Eastern Europe. They are all small birds with prettily barred 

 breasts. One of the most interesting, however, is the White Gos-Hawk of 

 Australia, a pure white species, which looks like an albino. Astur novae, 

 hollandice, as it is called, is confined to the Australian continent, with a- 

 representative species, A. leucosomus, in New Guinea. 



This is also a numerously represented genus of Hawks ; the difference 

 between the Sparrow-Hawks and the Gos-Hawks consisting principally in 

 the smaller bills and longer toes of the former birds. 

 Like the Gos-Hawks, the members of the genus Accipiter 

 are found over the greater part of the world, and both 

 small and large species are met with. They are generally 

 of slight build, but use their short wings with great 

 dexterity, doubling in their flight in the most rapid manner, and snatching 

 their prey with a sudden plunge, seldom attempting to seize it in the open. 



In our English Sparrow-Hawk the female is a much larger bird than the 

 male, and is much the more powerful bird of the two, though nothing can 

 well exceed the spirit and dash of 

 the little male Sparrow-Hawk. The 

 chief food of the species consists of 

 small birds, but it takes Blackbirds, 

 Partridges, and, according to Mr. 

 Seebohm, even Wood-Pigeons. It 

 is a very determined marauder on 

 the Pheasant coops, and catches a 

 number of young birds of all sorts, 

 feeding its own young on these. 

 The nest is somewhat large, and, 

 unlike that of most of the smaller 

 Birds of Prey, which generally ap- 

 propriate the nest of some other 

 bird, the Sparrow-Hawk builds its 

 own nest. The eggs of the species 

 of Accipiter are invariably more 

 handsome than those of the Gos-Hawks, and some of the eggs of our own 

 species are beautifully marbled with reddish brown. 



The largest of the Sparrow-Hawks is the Pied Sparrow-Hawk of Africa, 

 which is nearly 2 ft. in length. 



With this sub-family we commence the description of the shorter legged 

 Hawks, wherein the tibio-tarsus is always longer than 

 the tarso-metatarsus. The first of the three sub-families 

 is that of the Buteonince. or Buzzards. And here we find 

 a character which runs through them all, and is very 

 constant, viz., that the hinder aspect of the tarsus is 

 scaled, and not reticulated. This we believe to be the principal character- 



Fig. 3. THE FEMALE SPARROW-HAWK 

 (Accipiter nisus). 



The Buzzards. 

 Sub-family 



Buteonince. 



