104 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



AN OBSERVATIONAL DIAEY ON THE DOMESTIC 



HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK {ACCIPITER 



NISUS). 



By Edmund Selous. 



(Continued from p. 68.) 



Back again at 4.40 p.m. and find the female Sparrow-Hawk 

 covering the young as usual. She now sits so high that I can 

 see her almost to the ventral surface. Just upon 5 she stands 

 up in the nest, and, the next moment, flies off it, whilst almost 

 as she does so I hear the cry of the male, and then see him 

 obscurely amidst the branches. The female hawk makes one 

 long graceful curve down upon him, then sweeps away, and, the 

 next moment the male has flown out and dropped on to a branch 

 well in my view — I get the glasses on to him and can see that 

 there is nothing in his claws. The female has settled somewhat 

 beyond him, and I cannot see her. Just upon 5.5, however, she 

 flies to the nest, and as she comes down upon the rim (usual 

 place) what looks like a small bird makes, if I am not mistaken 

 (but in this I well may be), some movement as though to escape. 

 In any case it is instantly eviscerated, as I gather, and distri- 

 buted to the chicks, who are now seen leaping up in the nest, 

 and seizing each mouthful ravenously. There is no pluming, 

 red meat being instantly torn from the body, nor had I noticed 

 any appearance of this having been plucked before. This last, 

 however, does not go for much, since the distance and partial or 

 complete interposition of the structure of the nest itself makes 

 certainty here almost impossible — at any rate, something which I 

 have not yet attained unto. From her leaving the nest to her 

 coming down upon it again the hawk was away a bare five 

 minutes. As far as I can interpret the matter, she must have 

 flown direct to the male and received the prey from him almost, 

 if not quite, in passing. Then settling, she probably made a 

 hasty meal herself, before flying on with it to the nest. I hope, 

 therefore, that I was mistaken (as is indeed probable) in my 



