CHAPTER VII 

 THE SPARROW HAWK 



AN outlaw and a freebooter is the sparrow 

 hawk, with every game-preserver's hand 

 against it ; we find it hanging, a tattered 

 and weather-worn corpse, from the keeper's 

 gibbet, where it swings with crows, magpies, jays, 

 and other so-called " vermin," until the wind and 

 rain beat it down and it drops to the ground to 

 be covered by the kindly ferns and mosses. 



Between that poor remnant of feathers and bones 

 and the fine dashing bird that puts panic into 

 the hearts of the blackbirds there is a wide gap, 

 but the gun bridges it ! For the gamekeeper is a 

 deadly foe. So persecuted is the sparrow hawk 

 that it is quite scarce in the well-preserved woods 

 of the Midlands, but where wild life has had its own 

 way for a time we may be sure of meeting with 

 it. Wherever there are big woods and tree-clad 

 valleys it is plentiful, and one finds it throughout 

 the Welsh " Marches/ 1 It is essentially a tree- 

 loving bird, and you seldom meet with it away 

 from the neighbourhood of timber. The kestrel 

 one may see on the open moors, or find nesting 



185 



