VOL. xni.] SOME HABITS OF SPARROW-HAWK. 121 



shuffling round the nest, and, therefore, the one in the shade 

 was nearly always changing. The hen's powers of endurance 

 were wonderful, and the time she kept the crouching position 

 amazed me, for she would not alter it at all until the cock 

 came again, after it might be two or three hours, or even until 



Fig. 2. Sparrow-Hawk : Making the body into a sun-screen. 

 (Photographed by J. H. Owen.) 



the shadows began to cover the nest again ; although she 

 would be panting all the time. Sometimes she would be 

 brooding before the sun reached the nest, and then she did 

 not get up, but simply brooded on. The young could not 

 endure to be under her and squirmed their bodies free, panting 

 and lying exhausted on the nest with their necks outstretched. 

 If the hen happened to be away, when the sun came on the 



