220 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vdi. 



FOOD OF SPARROW-HAWK. 



I AM glad to see that several good field-ornithologists are 

 speaking up for the Sparrow-Hawk. My own experience 

 quite agrees with what Dr. Penrose, and Messrs. Heatley 

 Noble and Meade-Waldo say, in recent numbers of British 

 Birds, about this dashing little raptorial. 



I beheve that, as far as Partridges and wild Pheasants 

 go, the Sparrow-Hawk need not be taken into account by 

 the sportsman or the gamekeeper. 



Tradition and prejudice die hard, but if those who have 

 the opportunity will watch a breeding pair of Sparrow- 

 Hawks, and will note what is brought to the young brood, 

 they will find that the charge of destroying game is rarely 

 supported by evidence. Some ten years ago, before I gave 

 up hawking, a young friend learning land agency work in 

 the neighbourhood, wanted some young Sparrow-Hawks 

 to train and my falconer was instructed to help him. Three 

 nests were located and kept under observation, my man 

 constantly visiting each nest to see how the young progressed, 

 and in order that he might by degrees single out the most 

 promising female of each brood, so that by getting all the 

 food she might become specially vigorous and well developed. 



During the three weeks or thereabouts that the young were 

 being watched, not a single game-bird's remains were found 

 about any of these three nests, though there was a rearing- 

 field within less than a mile of each of them, and the district 

 is preserved and it is good Partridge land. The food brought 

 to the three broods consisted mainly of young Blackbirds 

 and Thrushes, the former largely predominating, with a 

 few Finches. 



Of course, as your correspondents remark, if an individual 

 Sparrow-Hawk (or Kestrel) finds the artificial conditions 

 of a rearing-field too tempting, that particular bird should 

 be " removed," and the sooner the better ! 



W. H. St. Quintin, 



COLOURING OF SOFT PARTS OF 

 SLAVONIAN GREBE. 



A Slavonian Grebe [Colymhus auritus) was shot on Lake 

 Windermere on December 19th, 1914. I received the bird 

 later the same day. It was a male in winter plumage. 



It may be of interest to note that the beak, while 

 corresponding in other respects with the Duchess of Bedford's 

 description {British Birds, III., p. 268), had the base 



