DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE SPARBOW-HAWK. 51 



the accustomed note, which seemed now to have a plaintive 

 character. Then both settled on the same bough, becoming 

 hidden for a few seconds, when one flew out from the plantation 

 — this tree being just on the edge of it — the other remaining. 

 All this is compatible with the view that the male Sparrow-Hawk 

 brings booty to the hen, who alone incubates, and tallies with 

 the instantaneous flight of the latter, from the nest, to seek him, 

 upon hearing his cry, as observed on three occasions. If this 

 is not the case, then the facts recounted are unexplained. 



A little before, or after, the two hawks settled on the bough 

 (as just before mentioned), one of them, as I then thought, flew 

 straight to the trunk of a beech and disappeared amongst some 

 of the foliage springing from its trunk, at only a few feet above 

 the ground. I thought it a strange situation for a hawk to affect, 

 for it did not perch on any of the small sprays that just pro- 

 jected, but, piercing these, seemed to go straight to the trunk. 

 When I turned the glasses' on to the leafy screen, something 

 seemed to be going on behind it, but I could not tell what, and, 

 it being then my cue to keep still, it was not till some time 

 afterwards, and when not thinking much about it, that, walking 

 in that part of the plantation, I all at once found myself oppo- 

 site a nest of some size that was fixed between the trunk and 

 some small twig-like boughs, diverging from it at an acute 

 angle, some five and a half feet above the ground. It then im- 

 mediately struck me that this was the very tree and place 

 upon it to which the hawk had flown, and, searching the nest 

 (which proved to be the abandoned one of a Jay), I found instead 

 of any eggs a dead Eedstart, I think upon the rim or partly so, 

 but was not sufficiently careful in noting this point. The body 

 was not yet quite cold, and the plumage was intact. I remarked 

 no wound upon it, but my examination was a hasty one, as I 

 went forthwith into cover in order to watch this nest, which I 

 did till about 7 a.m., but with no fresh result. It would 

 appear, therefore, that the hawks (or one of them) are accus- 

 tomed to use this alien nest as a sort of storehouse, or depository, 

 for birds killed by them, to be used afterwards as required — or, 

 at least, that one of the pair had so used it on this occasion. I 

 now left, purposing to come early next morning and again watch. 



June 15th. — Rose before 2 a.m., and at 3.15 had taken up 



