350 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



ADDENDUM 



Sharp-shinned Hawk. Accipiter velox (Wils.) 



This small hawk may be distinguished from all birds but the 

 Sparrow Hawk by its size. From the latter it may be known by its 

 rounded rather than pointed wings, and in adults by its blue-gray 

 back, and under parts cross-barred with reddish brown. Young 

 birds are more brownish on the back and striped with dull brown 

 beneath. The male is smaller than the female, being often only a 

 little larger than the Robin. This bird may always be best identi- 

 fied by its shape in flight, the combination of rounded wings and 

 long tail distinguishing it at once from hawks of both the Buteo and 

 Falco groups. 



The Sharp-shinned Hawk is not particularly common in the 

 Park. In the summer of 1921 it was seen but once on Quaker Run, 

 but in 1922 it seemed to have increased somewhat in numbers. This 

 hawk is unquestionably a greater destroyer of small birds than any 

 other of our common hawks. It often hunts by hiding in thick 

 shrubbery and waiting until its prey approaches, and then pouncing 

 upon it. Because of the fact that it kills many birds it has been 

 hunted and destroyed unmercifully, particularly during its migra- 

 tions ; and in some regions it has become rare as a breeding bird. 

 Yet it is a wild creature that cannot be blamed because nature gave 

 it the instinct to kill birds for a living. It fills its place in nature, 

 and too great a decrease in its numbers is liable to be followed by 

 serious results. 



It nests most commonly in the thick branches of a hemlock, some- 

 times constructing its own nest, and sometimes using an abandoned 

 one originally built by crows. The eggs are curiously blotched and 

 spotted. This hawk is usually silent when it hunts, but in late sum- 

 mer the calls of the hungry young will often betray the location of 

 the nest. 



