BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 203 
seek locations considerably removed from dwellings, but do 
not reject the outhouses when they are considerably separated 
from the others. Indeed, one pair occupied a box used for a 
dove roost. But who would find them in their most frequented 
localities during the breeding season must go to groves of 
timber bordering extensive meadows. They lay about four or 
five eggs that are brownish-white, speckled all over with red- 
dish-brown and frequently considerably blotched with a light 
reddish. 
As an indication of their value to the agriculturist, I will 
introduce an excerpt from the pen of M. de Lautrie, who says: 
‘*In 1863 I took five little Sparrow Hawks and put them in a 
cage. The parent birds immediately brought them food, and I 
was not surprised to see that it consisted of twelve mice, four 
large lizards and six mole crickets. A meal of like size was 
brought every day for a month. At one time there were 
fifteen field mice, two little birds and a young rabbit. Last 
year I made the same experiment with the same result, one 
meal consisting of twelve small birds, one lark, three moles, and 
one hedgehog. In one month the five baby hawks rid the 
world, by actual count, of 420 rats and mice, 200 mole-crickets, 
and 158 lizards.” 
Need a word be added to satisfy the most incredulous that 
the Sparrow-Hawk is a friend of man, and should be protected 
by law? 
Late in July and August, the young being grown, they be- 
come widely distributed and remain exceedingly common till 
about the first to the tenth of October. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Frontal band and space including the eyes and throat, white; 
spot on the neck behind, two others on each side of the neck, 
and a line running downwards from before the eye, black. Spot 
on the top of the head, neck behind, back, rump and tail, light 
rufous or cinnamon color. Under parts, generally, a paler 
shade of the same rufous as the back, frequently nearly white, 
but sometimes dark as the upper parts, and always with more 
or less numerous circular or oblong spots of black. Quills 
brownish-black with white bars on their inner webs. Tail 
tipped with white, frequently tinged with rufous, and with a 
broad subterminal band of black, outer feathers frequently 
white, tinged with ashy and barred with black. Bill light blue; 
legs yellow. Back generally with transverse stripes of black, 
but frequently with very few, or entirely without; rufous spot 
on the head, variable in size, and sometimes wanting. 
Length, 11. to 12.; wing, 7. to 7.50; tail, 5. to 5.50. 
Habitat, whole of North America. 
