BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
113 
Plate XX. 
TINNUNCULUS SPAKVEEIUS, (Linn.) AAeillot. 
Sparrow Hawk. 
The Sparrow H.a.wk is the handsomest of American birds of j)rey. 
Few small species are more active in the pursuit of quarry, and none 
more friendly and sociable in their intercourse with man. It receives its 
common name from the fringilline character of its fare, our various 
Sparrows forming a no inconsiderable portion thereof. 
# 
From Maine to California, and from Hudson’s Bay to the Mexican 
possessions, these birds abound in greater or less abundance, but are nota- 
bly scarce, or entirely wanting, in the Arctic regions of British America, 
and in our newly acquired territory of Alaska. The highest points which 
they have been supjiosed to reach are Fort Eesolution, on Great Slave 
Lake, and Fort Eae. Throughout nearly the whole of this vast region 
they undoubtedly summer, and spend the time in the rearing of families. 
Within the United States the species is a rara avis in some places, 
and a very abundant one in others. In the vicinity of Calais, Maine, it 
is quite common, which is otherwise the case in Eastern Massachusetts, 
although in the western j^arts of the latter State, birds have been known 
to breed. In the Middle Atlantic States, New York and Pennsylvania 
especially, it is a not uncommon occurrence to find it in great plenty, 
often as many as a dozen paired individuals being seen within a single 
square mile of territory. Throughout the West, but more jiarticularly in 
the canyons of the eastern range of the Humboldt Mountains, Bidgway 
attests to its abundance, and also to its disposition to nest in hollows of 
limestone cliffs. 
