187 



SPARROW-HAWK. 



F-ako Nisus. F. griseo-fuscus, subtus albidus fusco vndulatus^ 



canda nigro fascial a apice alba, 

 Grey-Brown Hawk, beneath whitish undulated with brown, 



tail barred with black, and white at the tip. 

 Falco Nisus. F. cera viridi, pedibusflavis, abdomine alba griseo 



undulato, caudafasciis nigricantibus. Lin. Syst. Nat. 

 Sparrow-Hawk. WilL orn* Pain. Brit. ZooL Latlu syn. 



This well-known species, so remarkable for the 

 ravages it commits in the neighbourhood of dove- 

 houses, &c. is numbered by Falconers among the 

 short-winged Hawks, or such in which the wings 

 when closed fall short of the end of the tail. It is 

 a species in which the difference of size between 

 the male and female is more remarkable than in 

 most other Hawks ; the male usually measuring 

 about twelve inches, and the female fifteen. The 

 general colour is grey-brown above, varying in 

 depth or intensity in different individuals; the 

 quill-feathers are marked by blackish or dusky 

 bars, and the tail is crossed by four or five black- 

 ish bars: the under parts of the bird are white, 

 elegantly crossed or undulated by numerous linear 

 dusky or blackish bars: the bill is dusky-blue, the 

 cere and legs yellow. In some birds the throat 

 and breast are marked by perpendicular rufous or 

 dusky streaks, while the abdomen is barred as 

 before described; and in some a cast of ferruginous 

 takes place on various parts of the plumage. " This, 

 says Mr. Pennant, is the most pernicious Hawk 



