82 Falconidcv. 



with wonderful velocity and force, they pursue them on the wing, 

 as a greyhound would a hare, gliding after them at great speed 

 for a short distance, even dashing after them through woods and 

 thick plantations. But should they fail to come up with their 

 quarry, they are unable to prolong the chase, and so abandon it 

 and await another chance. Of all the short- winged Hawks, none 

 is more bold, active, and destructive, especially in the breeding 

 season, than the Sparrow Hawk. There are many interesting 

 accounts of its wholesale plunder and insatiability in destroying 

 young birds and game at that time, but the most extraordinary 

 that has come under my notice is that published by Mr. Knox, 

 who counted the following victims laid up in store in their nest 

 for the half-fledged young : ' Fifteen young pheasants, four 

 young partridges, five chickens, a bullfinch, two meadow pipits > 

 and two larks, all in a fresh state.' From such well-known 

 voracity and penchant for game, I can scarcely hope that the 

 Sparrow Hawk will be spared by the gamekeeper, though at the 

 same time he deserves our respect and admiration for his bravery 

 and skill : but at any rate let his sins be visited on his own head, 

 and not on the inoffensive insectivorous Kestrel, which is so often 

 made to suffer for the misdemeanours of another. The Sparrow 

 Hawk prefers birds to quadrupeds, and thus we see it furnished 

 with long and slender legs, and toes (especially the middle one) 

 remarkably elongated, and these are admirably adapted for 

 grasping and penetrating the dense plumage of its victim. The 

 female, flying low, and skimming over the ground with great 

 swiftness, often seizes the partridge and the pigeon, with no 

 gentle stroke, while her diminutive partner is content to pick off 

 the sparrow or the finch from the hedge, or even the rickyard, 

 whither his boldness will lead him undismayed. Sometimes the 

 Sparrow Hawk will condescend to devour insects, and Mitchell, in 

 his admirable account of the ' Birds of Lancashire,' recounts how 

 it has been seen to catch crane-flies with the foot, and transfer 

 them at once to the mouth, after the manner of the Hobby and 

 Kestrel mentioned above. 

 In none of the whole family is the difference in size between 



