126 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



The Sparrow-Hawk loves to nest in a thick plantation, selecting in preference 

 a larch, Scotch fir, or spruce, but when these cannot be had it will be content 

 with an oak or some other tree. The nest is a flat and shallow structure built 

 of sticks and twigs broken off from the tree in which it is placed, and is some- 

 times lined with a little moss. Or else the old nest of a Wood- Pigeon, Crow, or 

 Magpie will be appropriated, some additional sticks being added ; year after year 

 the Hawks return to the same nest and enlarge it, until some of the nests ex- 

 amined by the writer have become large and untidy abodes, the added sticks often 

 serving as a platform on which the old birds drop the food for the young, and 

 on which the young birds sit out when nearly fledged, keeping up a plaintive 

 wailing that often betrays the nest to the destroyer. The eggs, of an oval shape, 

 are four to six in number, and are handsomely marked on a ground of bluish white 

 with bold splashes of reddish brown, which often form a zone at one end, or else 

 they are closely freckled all over with small spots of red ; there is usually one &gg 

 in the clutch that is smaller and with fewer markings than the rest. The Sparrow- 

 Hawk's eggs, with their pretty varieties, are among the favourites in the Oologist's 

 cabinet. They measure from I'yS to i"5 inches, by from i"39 to 1.2 inches. 



The Sparrow-Hawk is distributed all over Europe up to the limit of forest 

 growth ; in Asia, as far north as the Arctic Circle, and as far east as China and 

 Japan ; also in Algeria and the Canaries. The northern Sparrow-Hawks migrate 

 in the winter to the south of Europe and north-east Africa. 



Seebohm states that among small birds the Chaifinch and Willow Warbler are 

 the commonest prey of the Sparrow-Hawk ; it will sometimes capture and eat 

 young rabbits, moles, and mice. 



The adult male is of a dark slate blue on the upper parts, with a patch of 

 white upon the nape ; the tail is greyish brown, barred with darker brown ; the 

 under parts are rufous, barred with darker rufous. In very old birds the trans- 

 verse bars become much narrower. The beak is blue ; cere, legs, and toes yellow ; 

 irides orange ; claws black. The adult female has the upper parts brown, with a 

 white nape spot ; the under parts are greyish white, barred with brown. She is 

 very much larger than her mate. The young males are brownish like the female, 

 but with some rufous edgings to the feathers of the back ; the tail is reddish 

 brown, especially at the base ; the dark markings on the under parts are in spade 

 shaped blotches. Nestlings are at first covered with white down. Very old females 

 assume the plumage of the male. There are numerous local races of the Sparrow- 

 Hawk ; some authors have considered the variations in the shading of the plumage 

 and in size sufficient to justify the creation of a number of subspecies. 



The length of the male is twelve inches, that of the female fifteen inches. 



