454 AVES—HAWK. 
belly are white, with a number of wavy lines or bars of black; the tail is 
long, of an ash color, and crossed with four or five dusky bars; the legs are 
yellow, and the claws black; the wings are much shorter than the tail. — It 
feeds on mice and small birds, and eagerly devours raw flesh ; it plucks the 
birds very n@itly, and tears them into pieces before it eats them, but swal- 
lows the pieces entire ; and frequently disgorges the hair rolled up in small 
pellets. 
The goshawk is found in France and Germany; it is not very numerous 
in England, but is more frequent in Scotland, where it breeds in lofty trees, 
and destroys large quantities of game. It is also common in Russia, and 
Siberia, There is in Chinese Tartary a variety which is mottled with 
brown and yellow, and is used for sporting by the nobility. 
THE SPARROW-HAWK. 

‘lus bird is somewhat larger than a common pigeon, the male being abo 
twelve inches in length, and the female fifteen. It has a short hooked blue 
bill, with yellow cere, slender reddish legs, and rather a long tail. Thu 
color of the eye is a bright orange. The plumage on the wings and upper 
parts of the body is brown, spotted with yellowish dun; the lower parts in 
some are whitish; in others ofa russet color. 
The sparrowhawk is very numerous in various parts of the world, from 
Russia to the Cape of Good Hope. The female builds in high rocks, lofty 
ruins, or hollow trees, but will sometimes condescend to take up with the 
old nest of a crow. Four or five is the number of eggs which she lays, and 
they are marked with reddish spots at the longer end. The sparrowhawk 
is more easily trained and made docile than most of the rapacious tribes, 
and when domesticated it is susceptible of great attachment to its owner. 
In its wild state it commits enormous havoc among the smaller race of birds, 
and it is an object of particular dislike to the farmer, as it sometimes makes 
destructive visits to the poultry yard, and is so daring that it is not to be 
intimidated from the pursuit of its prey even by the presence of mankind. 


1 Falco nisus, Lin. 
