American Sparrow Hawk 219 



purely accidental. The nesting site is rather varied. It has perhaps a partiality 

 for towers and lofty ruins, where it nests in company with Doves, Starlings, and 

 Jackdaws, but it also nests in holes in rocks, hollow trees, and the abandoned 

 nests of Crows or Magpies. The eggs are usually six in number, but range from 

 four to seven. They have a reddish white ground on which is spread numerous 

 blotches of a dull red. The Kestrel is an easy bird to tame, making a more 

 affectionate and docile pet than most Hawks. Hudson in his ''British Birds" 

 gives an entertaining account of one owned by some friends. It was allowed 

 full freedom and usually departed in early morning and returned in the evening, 

 flying into the house and alighting on a statue or large picture frame. It was 

 always present at dinner, sitting on the shoulder of one or the other of its owners, 

 from whose hands it received bits of meat. It suddenly, however, developed 

 extraordinary fits of ill temper, during which it would violently attack any one 

 in the room, inflicting quite severe injuries. 



Sparrow Hawk. In North America the place of the Kestrel is filled by the 

 so-called Sparrow Hawk (F. sparverius), which is probably the best known as 

 well as the smallest and one of the handsomest of our Hawks. The male is 

 about ten inches long and the female about twelve inches. The former is rufous 

 above, usually with black bars or spots, and varies below from white to deep 

 ochraceous, with or without black spots, while there are two black obliquely 

 vertical bands on the sides of the head. The tail is chestnut-rufous, crossed near 

 the end by a broad black band, while the wings are grayish blue, more or less 

 spotted with black. The female may be known by having the tail, wings, and 

 back crossed by numerous narrow bands of dusky and absence of grayish blue 

 on the wings. The Sparrow Hawk is found throughout the whole of temperate 

 North America, being an exceedingly common species throughout much of the 

 West. It feeds exclusively on grasshoppers when these are obtainable, and may 

 be seen in numbers perched on telegraph poles or other elevated points from 

 which it sallies forth. The grasshoppers are taken in the talons and are handled 

 with as much dexterity as a squirrel handles a nut. When these insects are scarce 

 it feeds on mice, small snakes, and an occasional bird. It has the same habit as 

 the Kestrel of hovering for a short space over a spot where it detects evidence of 

 the presence of its prey. The nesting site of this Hawk is usually a hollow tree, 

 such as the deserted nest of a large Woodpecker, or a natural cavity, and as a 

 general thing is located at some distance from the ground ; but in absence of 

 suitable timber it may nest in holes in rocks, or in banks, using the aban- 

 doned burrow of the Kingfisher, and but rarely does it select a deserted open nest 

 of such species as the Magpie or Crow. Still more rarely has it been known to 

 take possession of a dove-cote. Such a case is reported by Mr. John H. Sage of 

 Portland, Connecticut, who found a pair occupying one of four nesting com- 

 partments of a pigeon-box, the Hawks living in harmony with their neighbors. 

 The number of eggs laid by these birds is usually four or five, although as many 

 as seven have been recorded. They are mostly pale buff or cream-colored, 

 with spots, blotches, and markings of different shades of brown. There are other 

 interesting species, but we must pass them by. 



