VOL. XV.] HABITS OF SPAKKOW-HAWK, 



/ii 



dark markings this year, most being blotched with light 

 brown ; in several, one egg, and very rarely more than one, 

 showed that the egg had rotated considerably while the 

 pigment was being laid on. One egg is very striking : the 

 ground-colour, where visible, has a very decided light green 



Hen Sparrow-Hawk crouching over young a few hours old and a 

 hatching egg : thus keeping off the sun, but not the air. 



(Photographed by J. H. Owen.) 



tinge, but the whole egg is uniformly coloured with pale 

 brown so that very little ground-colour shows ; the brown 

 marks show the rotation movement. In one set the last egg 

 laid has not a vestige of a mark on it. 



In all the nests we have watched for any period it has been 

 quite the general thing for material to be added throughout 



