140 BRITISH BIRDS. 



anxiety for her home. The male Sparrow-Hawk, as is the case with many 

 birds of this order, often soars above the nesting-place to an inmense 

 height, wheeling round and round with wings expanded. But one brood 

 is reared in the year, although, if the first eggs are taken, as has been 

 already remarked, others will be laid. The young are fed assiduously; 

 and at no time of the year are the Sparrow-Hawks so bold and venturesome 

 as now, when they have hungry young to cater for. It is then the game- 

 coverts yield their tribute of young chicks ; it is then the smaller birds are 

 even more sorely pressed ; and it is then they will dash silently and swiftly 

 into the poultry-yards and bear off the young chicks so quickly. When 

 the young reach maturity, which is but slowly, they are abandoned by 

 their parents, and quit their birthplace for ever. 



The eyrie of the Sparrow-Hawk is a very interesting place to visit when 

 the young are almost ready for flight. Young Sparrow-Hawks exhibit 

 great diversity of size and colour. Indeed there are seldom two in the 

 same nest alike when they have attained their first plumage. In the nest 

 are pellets and feathers in abundance not the feathers of game-birds, as 

 a rule, but usually of the smaller Finches and Warblers, notably of the 

 Chaffinch and Willow-Warbler. Animals are sometimes brought, as the 

 fur of the rabbit and the mole tells us pretty plainly. A few days before 

 the young gain the use of their wings they spend the greater part of their 

 time upon the tree, flying from branch to branch, trying and strength- 

 ening their pinions, and uttering their peculiar tremulous notes. Even 

 before they are fully fledged, if the nest is visited, the young birds will 

 scramble out onto the branches, using their beaks to assist them, and 

 usually getting quite out of reach. The leaves and branches of the tree 

 round and about the nest are white with their droppings, just as though 

 they had been whitewashed ; yet but little or no smell pervades the place. 

 Before finally taking wing and quitting their birthplace for ever, they 

 repair to the neighbouring trees, where they are for a few days more fed 

 and tended by their parents, until strong and matured enough to gain their 

 own living. 



Such a bold and ravenous bird as the Sparrow-Hawk very naturally 

 receives no favour from the game-preservers ; he is shown no mercy, is shot 

 and trapped whenever the occasion is afforded. That the Sparrow-Hawk is a 

 destructive bird I am not going to deny ; but certainly there are some few 

 good points in his character which deserve a passing notice. The small 

 birds are certainly kept in check partly through his agency ; and the Ring- 

 Doves (a perfect pest to the farmer in some districts) are his favourite food 

 when those birds congregate towards the autumnal equinox to feed on the 

 acorns and beech-mast. Then, again, the taking of weakly birds and animals 

 by the Sparrow-Hawk serves to keep disease away and preserve that 

 healthy standard of perfection which Nature inexorably demands. 



