THE SPARROW-HAWK 349 



pairing the note is Gdck, gack, gdck," and then more 

 rapidly " Gia, giack, giack." 



The Sparrow-hawk is well known all over Great 

 Britain and also in Ireland, in all those districts which 

 are well timbered. Its food consists for the most part 

 of small birds, from the Thrush to the Wren. These 

 are snapped up as the bird glides stealthily along the 

 hedgerows or on the outskirts of some wood. In our 

 own country it has been trained to take Partridges, 

 Quails, etc. In India and Japan also it is used by the 

 native falconers. It is a bold daring raider of our woods 

 and fields. This bird has a history which reaches back 

 into the far past. It received its latin name, Accipiter 

 nisus, because of a myth relating to King Nisus of 

 Megara, who, it is said, had one hair of red-gold colour, 

 on the preservation of which depended the conservation 

 of his kingdom. Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, being 

 in love with Minos, King of Crete, son of Jupiter and 

 Europa, treacherously cut the golden hair of her father 

 Nisus, and therefore he and his country were easily 

 vanquished. The gods, angry with the unnatural 

 daughter, changed her into a Lark, and Nisus into a 

 Sparrow-hawk, under which form the unhappy father 

 pursues his daughter unceasingly, in order to satisfy a 

 thirst for vengeance. The ancients had all sorts of 

 mysterious ideas, in connection with the Sparrow-hawk; 

 they believed, for one thing, that he was the primo- 

 genitor of the Cuckoo. There is always something 

 interesting in such old myths, in spite of their apparent 

 absurdity. 



Somerville, in " Field Sports," takes only the 

 falconer's view of the Sparrow-hawk, when he says : 



