193 



NOTES ON THE EOOD AxM) HABITS OF THE 

 SPAIUIOW-HAWK. 



BY 



J. H. OWEN. 



The following notes made from time to time on tlie 

 habits of the Sparrow-Hawk may be of interest as 

 supplementing or corroborating the observations recently 

 published in these pages, i In connexion with some of 

 the observations, I have to acknowledge assistance from 

 A. P. Adams, one of the boys at Pelsted School. 



Curiously enough I have never seen a nest of a Sparrow- 

 Haw]c Mhich had as its foundation the old nest of another 

 bird, though my brother, O. R. Owen, says that he 

 often finds Sparrow-Hawks' nests built upon old nests 

 of Wood-Pigeons. In 1914, however, I knew of two 

 cases of Sparrow-Ha^\■ks laying in nests from which 

 the hen birds had been shot in 1913. One of these 

 wa^s a second laying after the eggs had been robbed 

 from a new nest ; the other was a first laying, 

 and suggests that the cock has some choice in the 

 nesting-site. 



It is hard to say when incubation commences ; in 

 some nests 1 have watched, the eggs have hatched at 

 intervals, but in one case all four eggs hatched during 

 the course of one day. The incubation-period is practic- 

 ally thirty-five days. During incubation the nest gets 

 well flecked with down from the female, and is often 

 a very pretty sight. When the young are hatched 

 this disappears at once, being, I believe, removed by 

 the female after feedmg the young the first time. Later 

 on the nest gets flecked with do^vn from the young as 

 they get their feathers. 



When the young are newly hatched the eyes are 

 open and the iris is very dark brown, the pupil being 

 deep indigo. The iris then becomes greenish-grey, with 

 a black outer line. Later this line disappears and the 



