238 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 



within a long distance of the end of the tail, and have the fourth and fifth quills 

 nearly equal and longer than the others. The long metatarsus is smooth, being 

 covered with greave-like plates, and the toes are long and slender, with sharp, 

 curved claws. There are more than twenty species of sparrow-hawks, which are 

 distributed over the whole globe, with the exception of Oceania, the west of 

 Australia, and New Guinea. A few are rather larger than the European species, 



SPARROW-HAWK (| imt. size). 



while many are considerably smaller. The common sparrow-hawk (Accipiter nisus) 

 is still an abundant bird in the wooded districts of England, and the female is the 

 only Accipitrine which inflicts much damage upon game-preserves. It belongs to 

 a group of the genus characterised by the banded thighs, the absence of a collar 

 round the neck, and the number of bars on the tail not exceeding five. In the 

 adult male the plumage of the upper-parts, with the exception of a white spot on 

 the nape of the neck, is dark bluish grey, while the cheeks, chin, and under-parts 

 are rufous, barred with bands of dark rufous brown, narrower than the intervening 



