136 WOODLAND CREATURES 



on crags and cliffs, but the short-winged sparrow 

 hawk is a bird of the woodlands. Its very shape 

 and make denote it a forest species, being an 

 adaption for turning and twisting through the 

 trees, among which it is a wonderful flier. It 

 has short rounded wings and a long tail, so can 

 get up speed, stop and turn, in a wonderfully 

 small space. In a short sharp dash the sparrow 

 hawk flies at a great pace, but in a long flight 

 many birds can beat it, and I have seen a thrush 

 fly right away from a big female. She was fairly 

 beaten by it. 



Though the sparrow hawk is often confused with 

 the kestrel, there is really little resemblance. 

 The latter belongs to the long-winged hawks, in 

 which the tips of the narrow wings reach almost 

 to the end of the tail ; in fact, it is a small falcon, 

 though without the courage and dash that dis- 

 tinguishes the peregrine and the merlin. But it 

 has, like them, great dark eyes and short, com- 

 paratively feeble, legs. The sparrow hawk is 

 quite different; it is a typical short- winged hawk. 

 It has eyes with wonderful yellow irides, which 

 give it an exceptionally keen fierce aspect, long 

 legs, and big feet, while its wings are short and 

 rounded, their tips reaching little more than half- 

 way down its tail. Besides which the latter has 

 a horizontally barred and pencilled breast ; in 

 the kestrel the breast is striped perpendicularly. 

 In the case of that fine Continental bird the 

 goshawk, which is like a sparrow hawk only 

 much bigger, the young for the first twelve months 



