THE BUZZARDS. 



273 



that it has several times been known to dash through a glass window, and be caught in the room ; 

 while Messrs. Salvin and Broclrick, in their work on British Falconry, state that they have "known 

 a trained Sparrow-Hawk force itself to such an extent into a blackthorn bush, where it had killed a 

 bird, as to require to be cut out." Like the Goshawk, it is often trained for hawking, but is a much 

 more delicate bird to rear, and requires careful management when young. Nevertheless, a well-trained 

 Sparrow-Hawk will account for a considerable number of birds ; and in the work of the above-mentioned 

 authors is given an instance of one Hawk having killed 327 head in less than two months, consisting 

 of Sparrows, Blackbirds, Thrushes, a few Par- 

 tridges, and Linnets, more than two-thirds of 

 the number being Sparrows. 



In size the female Sparrow-Hawk is con- 

 siderably larger than the male, measuring 

 nearly sixteen inches in length, and nine inches 

 and a half in the wing. She is generally paler 

 grey, never so blue as in the male, nor is she 

 so red underneath. A sign of age, by which a 

 mature hen Sparrow-Hawk may be known, is 

 the pi'esence of a tuft of rufous plumes on the 

 flanks, which is feebly developed in the young 

 bird, but is a conspicuous feature in the adult. 



The male is bluish slate-colour above, the 

 quills browner and barred across with darker 

 brown, these bars being very distinct below; the 

 tail is barred with blackish-brown, and tipped 

 with white ; cheeks and ear-coverts are rufous ; 

 under surface of body whitish, with narrow bars 

 of bright rufous, the under tail-coverts white, as 

 are also the under wing-coverts and axillaries, 

 these two latter parts being spotted with brown. 

 Young birds are brown with rufous edges to 

 the feathers; underneath they are rufous, barred 

 with brown on the flanks and breast, the throat 

 and fore-neck streaked with the same colour. 

 The bars on the tail are five in number in a 

 young male, but as the bird increases in age the number of bars decreases, and is generally only 

 four in a very old bird : the same takes place in the female. The range of the Common Sparrow- 

 Hawk is very similar to that of the Goshawk, being extended all over Europe and Northern Asia, and 

 into Northern China and North-western India. Neither of the birds go to South Africa, and range 

 into the north-eastern portion of that continent only in winter. 



THE THIRD SUB-FAMILY. THE BUZZARDS (Biiteonincc). 



These Hawks constitute a numerous assemblage of the birds of prey, and lead on from the long- 

 legged Hawks of the previous sub-family to the Eagles, ending with the Great Harpy, which is, perhaps, 

 the most powerful bird of prey in the world. All the Buzzards have the tibia much longer than the 

 tarsus, but they may be distinguished from all the Eagles, Kites, and Falcons by having the back of 

 the tarsus " plated," and not " reticulated." In the accompanying woodcuts is shown the hinder aspect 

 of a Buzzard's tarsus (figure on p. 274), by which it will be seen that the scales are arranged in 

 plates, very differently from that which takes place in the tarsus of an Eagle (figure on p. 274), 

 where the scales are reticulated.* 



The Buzzards are more numerous in the northern parts of the world than in the tropics, and a 

 large decrease in the number of species takes place in Central and Southern America, whilst in 

 Oceania and Australia they are altogether absent. As a rule, they are birds of plain plumage and 

 * Rete, Lat., a net, so called on account of the network pattern. 



SPARROW-HAWK. {After Keulemc.ns ) 



