CONCERNING A SPARROW HAWK FAMILY 111 



although they all agreed to do so, and their enthusiasm seemed to be genuine 

 enough, not one of them ever carried the promise into effect ! 



On the following day, having at length fixed the cinema camera in position 

 and made myself more or less comfortable on a seat which I had previously 

 arranged, I sat with my eye to the look-out hole, awaiting the coming of the 

 hawk. 



I noticed that four of the eggs had already hatched, the little hawks, with 

 the remaining two eggs lying huddled together in the middle of the nest. Judg- 

 ing by the experience of the previous day, I felt pretty sure since every pre- 

 caution had been taken not to scare the old bird that she would soon return 

 to the nest ; and as it turned out my surmise was correct, for within twenty 

 minutes she suddenly, and without the slightest sound of warning, appeared 

 on the edge of the nest. So silently and so unexpectedly did she arrive that, 

 close as I was to her, it took me a fraction of a second to fully realize that she 

 was there. 



For a little while she stood erect on the side of the nest, with her head 

 inclined forward, in a listening attitude, and with one yellow eye fixed intently 

 on my hiding-place. Then presently, having it seemed satisfied herself that 

 all was well, she puffed out her feathers, and lowering her body so that her toes 

 just protruded beneath her breast feathers, commenced to shuffle in the most 

 awkward way towards her young. I have never seen any bird except a hawk 

 prepare to cover her eggs or young in this extraordinary fashion which, by the 

 way, reminded me of the actions of the Hobby and the Peregrine. 



Having eventually advanced sufficiently far to be able to cover the young, 

 she spent some little time in raising and lowering her body, and in shuffling 

 about before settling comfortably down to brood. Once more I gazed ad- 

 miringly at her as she sat in the bright sunshine. Her back looked bluer than 

 ever, whilst her golden eye with the projecting brow, her delicately lined breast, 

 and perfectly formed tail, combined to complete the most beautiful Sparrow 

 Hawk I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. 



What a sin to shoot such a creature ! 



She had not brooded the young for more than ten minutes when, from the 

 trees on my right, I heard the subdued, long-drawn call of the male, a soft 

 ' p-e-e-e-w ' repeated two or three times. At once, and again without a sound, 

 the female had left the nest, and was absent for some twenty or thirty seconds. 

 Then, as unexpectedly as before, she was standing again on the edge of the nest 

 this time with a small bird grasped in one foot. 



I could not tell exactly what species of bird this was, since it had already 

 been thoroughly plucked by the male, and in addition was minus its head 

 though from its shape I should say, with some degree of certainty, that it was 

 some kind of warbler a whitethroat perhaps, for the woods literally abounded 

 with these little birds. 



