532 ACCIPITER 



haukka, Finn. ; Jastreb-perepdatnik, Russ. ; ThoUa, Arab. ; Basha, 

 Pers. ; Basha $ , Bashin J, Hindu. ; Haitaka, Konori, Jap. 



(J c7. (England). Upper parts dark slate-grey, the nape marked with 

 white and a narrow superciliary stripe white ; quills and tail greyish 

 brown with dark transverse bands ; under parts rufous white, sometimes 

 rich rufous, barred with rufous brown ; bill dark horn-blue ; cere, legs, 

 and feet yellow ; iris orange. Culmen 0'65, wing 7'9, tail 6'5, tarsus 2'15 

 inch. The female is considerably larger than the male, viz. culmen 0*8, 

 wing 9'2, tail 7*2, tarsus 2'4 inch, and the old bird has the under parts 

 white, but little tinged with rufous except on the flanks, and barred with 

 brown. The young bird is dark brown above with rusty margins to the 

 feathers, the quills and tail with dark bars ; below dull white streaked 

 and to some extent irregularly barred with dark brown. This species is 

 however subject to considerable variation in colour and markings. 



Hal. Europe generally, north to the Arctic Circle; North 

 Africa in winter, south to Kordofan and Sennaar ; Asia Minor, 

 Palestine, and Asia generally, north to Kamchatka, east to 

 Japan, and south to India, Corea, and China. 



Extremely bold, swift, active on the wing and fierce, the 

 Sparrow Hawk is not only a terror to small birds, but a sore 

 pest to the game preserver and poultry breeder. It frequents 

 not only woodlands and plains, but may also be met with in the 

 mountains. It feeds chiefly on birds, and will attack a bird as 

 large as itself, but its chief food consists of small and young 

 birds, Wood Pigeons, young Rabbits, Leverets, etc. Its alarm 

 note is a tolerably shrill kirk, kirk, kirk, and in the breeding 

 season it utters a soft gu, gu, gu. It usually builds its own 

 nest, a somewhat flat structure of sticks lined with finer twigs, 

 placed on a tree often at a considerable altitude ; it will, 

 however, occasionally make use of a deserted crow's nest. The 

 eggs, 4 to 5, sometimes 6 or 7, in number, are deposited in May, 

 and are white tinged with pale green or blue, more or less 

 blotched and marked with chestnut-red, reddish brown, or dark 

 brown, and in size average T55 by 1'27. 



749. BESRA SPARROW-HAWK. 

 ACCIPITER VIRGATUS. 



Accipiter virgatus (Temm.),. PL Col. i. pi. 109 (1823) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. 

 Br. Mus. i. p. 150 ; Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. Birds, iii. p. 404 ; Tacz. 

 F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 110 ; A. gularis (Temm. and Schlegel), Faun. Jap. 

 Aves, p. 5, pi. 2 (1850) ; A. stevensoni, Gurney, Ibis, 1863, p. 447, 

 pi. xi. 



