Chapin: Notes on Young Owls and Hawks 139- 



home, and kept a week, being fed mainly on house mice, Must 

 musculus. It could eat comfortably about three mice per clay, hair 

 and bones included. Many of the mice were immature, and most 

 of their bones must have been digested by the young hawk, for it 

 disgorged only a few pellets containing hair, and almost no bones. 

 During the week it grew with remarkable rapidity, and, at the 

 end of that time, its whole body was clothed in winter plumage,, 

 with only a little down still adhering to the tips of the new 

 feathers. Fast as if had grown, however, I found when it was 

 put back in the nest on July 19 that it was not quite as large as 

 the other two. All three young sparrow hawks were, to judge 

 from their plumage, females. 



There was also a corresponding difference in the tempers of 

 the young hawks. The one I had kept at home was perfectly 

 tame, and would undoubtedly have made an interesting pet, could 

 I have devised a satisfactory method of procuring food for it; 

 but the other two, when taken out of the nest, would do little 

 except turn over on their backs, and present their open claws as 

 traps for unwary fingers. Knowing the fondness of sparrow 

 hawks for grasshoppers, we offered some to the young birds. 

 The tame one ate about six, with evident relish, but the others 

 refused to be fed. 



All three sparrow hawks were put back in the nest, and within 

 a very short time were probably able to fly. On September 13, in 

 a neighboring pasture, three sparrow hawks were seen, which 

 were undoubtedly part of the family found in the elm tree. In 

 September, 1907, I recollect a similar flock of sparrow hawks- 

 that seemed very much attached to these same fields, and had 

 probably come from a nest in the vicinity, perhaps in the very- 

 same elm. 



