104 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



field to Orient this little falcon breeds in nearly every community where 

 it is allowed to remain at peace. In traveling about the State I have found 

 it a fairly common summer resident and in winter have noticed it in many 

 cities and villages, or on their outskirts, where it subsists mostly on 

 " English " sparrows and field mice. In portions of New York City, 

 Poughkeepsie, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, Canandaigua and Geneva where 

 I have watched it day after day in midwinter it seemed evident that the 

 presence of an abundant supply of sparrows was the determining factor 

 which inhibited migration. Dining the migration season, March 20 to 

 April 30 and September to October 20, the Sparrow hawk is noticeably 

 commoner, especially near the coast, in the Hudson valley and along the 

 Erie-Ontario lowland. It breeds from Mackenzie, Keewatin and New- 

 foundland to Texas and Georgia; and winters from Illinois, New York and 

 Massachusetts to Costa Rica. 



Habits. The Sparrow hawk frequents wide pastures and fields which 

 have a scattered growth of trees, open groves, " slashes," and half-cleared 

 hillsides, or bottom lands with fringes of trees along the streams. In such 

 localities it is often seen perched on some dead branch or telegraph pole 

 or hovering in the air watching for its humble prey of mice and grass- 

 hoppers. Its flight is light and easy. Occasionally it gives voice to a 

 high pitched, rapidly repeated cry resembling the words killy, killy, killy, 

 killy. This is probably an alarm note, as it is rapidly reiterated when the 

 nest is in danger or when the young are being led away from their enemies. 

 The nest is in the deserted hole of some large woodpecker, usually the 

 Flicker, or in the hollow of a tree, but rarely in the deserted nest of a crow 

 or hawk. Little, if any, nesting material is placed in the hollow. The 

 eggs are laid from April 25 to May 30 according to locality and nature of 

 the season. They are from 4 to 7 in niimber, of a white or buff or rufous 

 ground color, variously speckled, blotched and clouded with shades of 

 chocolate, cinnamon, buff, ocherous etc., in different pattern, sometimes 

 confluent on the larger end, sometimes on the smaller, sometimes zoned, 

 and sometimes uniformly covered. They measure about 1.41 by 1.12 



