SPARROW-HAWK. 41 



THE SPARROW-HAWK. 



ACCIPITER NISUS. 



Speir-sheog. 



IN the remoter districts of the West of Scotland this daring 

 and destructive bird is not nearly so numerous as the merlin or 

 the kestrel. This scarcity is, of course, attributable to the 

 partiality which the Sparrow-Hawk shows for wooded and culti- 

 vated localities, in preferring to bring up its brood where it can 

 have easy access to partridge grounds and farm yards. In such 

 hunting fields it commits great devastation, and is always in such 

 a rapacious hurry that its thefts are not easily observed. A 

 terrified scream from the poultry is all that one hears, and before 

 a minute is past the feathered rascal is devouring his chicken at 

 a safe distance. The male is, generally speaking, the more fre- 

 quent visitor to farm steadings, small game being more convenient 

 for a bird of his size to carry any distance. The female, how- 

 ever, will dart into a covey of partridges, and carry off a bird 

 with apparent ease. The female Sparrow-Hawk, in fact, would 

 be the game preserver's worst enemy, did it not vary its diet by 

 an occasional wood pigeon, or some such heavy bird of little 

 consequence. When hard pressed by hunger, I have known it 

 come to the vicinity of towns, and carry oft* any kind of prey that 

 it could conveniently clutch. I remember seeing one make a 

 descent into a back court surrounded with houses, and strike a 

 half grown chicken among a group of common fowls. It fell upon 

 its prey with outspread wings, as if half stunned with the force 

 of its stoop, and in a moment, before it could recover itself, it was 

 attacked by a game cock which was strutting about, and actually 

 held down by the gallant fellow until taken hold of. A still 

 more singular instance of daring in a Sparrow-Hawk occurred at 

 Dingwall, in Koss-shire, in November last. The bird, seeing a 

 caged canary suspended near a window in the house of Mr Grigor, 

 from whom I learned the details, dashed through a pane of glass, 

 broke the cage with the impetus of the same blow, and killed its 

 prey as if the deed had been accomplished without any such 

 obstruction as glass or wires. When apprehended, it was found 

 that the hawk had, some time before, been trapped by one of its 



