606 



8 



brown. Bars on primaries six, on tail five. Total length 15 inches, culmen O'S, wing 9 - 0, tail 7'2, tarsus, 2 - 4, 

 middle toe without claw 1"65. When compared with the English examples killed in December, and described 

 by us, the tawny edgings to the upper plumage are much plainer, though we notice a clearer shade of grey on 

 the rump and tail of the Danish bird. In the latter, however, the cross bars of the under surface are very 

 much narrower, and the spots on the breast-feathers are so far modified as to form irregular bars ; in the 

 English specimen there are still several very distinct tawny spots. The latter bird has also a much stouter leg 

 and more powerful talons. 



Holland. In Mr. Swinhoe's collection is a female killed in December. On comparing it with an English 

 example killed at the same time of year, the bird appears rather more greyish brown above, but is otherwise 

 similar in general character. The most peculiar point about the Dutch specimen is the very deep-brown ear- 

 covert, and the thickly striped cheeks ; on the breast the markings are arrow-shaped, with a very distinct 

 tawny apical spot ; and these spots are observable in the centre of the cross bars on the belly as well as on 

 those of the axillary plumes ; the bars on the latter are broader and not so numerous as in the English bird ; 

 the tarsus, again, is not quite so thick, nor the claws so powerful, as in the last-mentioned individual. Total 

 length 14 - 6 inches, culmen 08, wing 9'2, tail 7'4, tarsus 2'4, middle toe without claw 1"55. 



British Islands. The impossibility of procuring a complete series of Swedish Sparrow-Hawks prevented 

 us from describing the different changes of plumage through which the typical A. nisus passes. We were 

 therefore obliged to take British examples, as we possessed, thanks to the kindness of our friends, a tolerably 

 complete series from these islands. But it is impossible to deny that the adult Sparrow- Hawks of England 

 are darker in plumage than continental specimens ; and this darker coloration would appear to extend even 

 to the young birds. We have so fully referred to the differences observed in our English series, that only 

 a few remarks are needed here. The question which has puzzled us considerably has been whether the 

 Sparrow-Hawk has two broods in the year — a question rather difficult to solve in a countxy like England, 

 where the present species must find it no easy matter to rear one. All the evidence that we have received in 

 answer to inquiries has tended to show that the Sparrow-Hawk only has one brood; and Sir Victor Brooke, 

 who has studied the habits of the bird under favourable auspices, writes to us : — " I am almost sure they never 

 under any circumstances rear two broods in the year." Another difficulty we have experienced has been in 

 determining whether the male bird gets into adult plumage in his first spring, because we have examples killed 

 in November which are still in young plumage, while a bird killed on the 6th of October has lost a great deal 

 of the rufous edgings to the feathers, and is getting the bars on the breast very much narrowed. On our 

 consulting Mr. Gurney, that gentleman very kindly sent us his experience on the subject; and so important 

 are his remarks that we are sure he will excuse our reproducing them here. " I have never kept Sparrow- 

 Hawks alive through their changes of plumage ; but I have examined a great number, and my belief is as 

 follows. The male gets the entire adult dress, including the orange eye, in the course of the spring succeeding 

 that in which he is hatched, i. e. when he is about twelve or fourteen months old. The female at the same 

 period assumes a plumage very like that of the adult Goshawk, but with a darker tone of lead-colour on the 

 back, and still keeping the immature yellow iris. At a subsequent period, probably when either two or three 

 years old, the back of the female becomes more decidedly tinged with blue, her sides become marked with 

 rusty red, like the breast of the male ; sometimes the transverse bars on the breast become slightly edged with 

 rufous in addition to the rufous on the flanks, and the eye becomes orange, as in the male. I think the second 

 change in the female is probably more gradual than her first. Skins of adult Goshawks and Sparrow-Hawks, 

 which have been kept for several years, are often browner on the back than in life, losing much of the bluish 

 tinge, which, I believe, rubs off (but perhaps fades). I have no information as to whether the Sparrow-Hawk 

 has a second brood if the first is destroyed ; but I think they only breed once when undisturbed, and should 

 doubt their making a second nest if the first is taken after the eggs are hatched or even much incubated : 

 Major Irby records, in an early volume of the ' Zoologist,' an instance of a Sparrow-Hawk, whose nest had 

 been destroyed, mating with a Hobby. Probably the young November birds you mention are the offspring of 



