SPAEEOW-HAWK. Ill 



the larger are plucked. Of two which I lately had in my 

 possession, kept in an empty greenhouse, one was found dead 

 one morning, and partly devoured; and I have heard of 

 another similar instance. Whether it had died a natural or 

 a violent death is uncertain; but as they quarrelled over 

 their food they were both females the latter is the most 

 probable. Mr. Selby says that he has often known such 

 cases. The first blow of the Sparrow-Hawk is generally fatal, 

 such is the determined force with which, with unerring aim 

 it rushes at its victim; sometimes indeed it is fatal to itself. 

 One has been known to have been killed by dashing through 

 the glass of a greenhouse, in pursuit of a blackbird which 

 had sought safety there through the door; and another in 

 the same way by flying against the windows of the college 

 of Belfast, in the chase of a small bird. The voracity and 

 destructiveness of this species is clearly shewn by the fact, 

 witnessed by A. E. Knox, Esq., of no fewer than fifteen 

 young pheasants, four young partridges, five chickens, two 

 larks, two pipits, and a bullfinch, having been found in and 

 about the nest of a single pair at one time. The young 

 appeared to have been catered for in the place of their 

 birth by their parents, even after they were able to fly to 

 some distance from it. A pigeon has been known to have 

 been carried by a female Sparrow-Hawk, a distance of one 

 hundred and fifty yards. 



Small birds in their turn sometimes pursue and tease their 

 adversary in small flocks, but generally keeping a respectful 

 distance; either a little above, or below, or immediately 

 behind: their motive, however, is at present, and will probably 

 remain, like many other arcana of nature, inexplicable. A 

 male Sparrow-Hawk which had a small bird in its talons, 

 has been seen pursued by a female for a quarter of an hour 

 through all the turns and twists by which he avoided her, 

 and successfully so long as the chase was witnessed. Several 

 instances have been known where houses, and in one instance 

 a church has been entered by this bird, in pursuit of its 

 prey its own capture being generally the consequence; and 

 one has been seen, immediately after the discharge of a gun, 

 to carry off a dunlin which had been shot, and had fallen 

 upon the water, poising himself for a moment over it in the 

 most elegant manner, so that he might not be wetted, and 

 then drooping his legs and clutching it most cleverly. 



Great however as is the power of flight of the Sparrow-Hawk, 



