636 



identified or shot seemed more stealthy in their movements than their congeners, flying up 

 water-courses under the bushes, betaking themselves to thickets, and remaining under cover of 

 the brushwood." 



The following account of its habits accompanied M. Severzow's original description of the 

 present species : — 



"This bird is not very common with us; I have only observed it in 1849, on the 17th of 

 April, the 4th of May, and the 10th of August, excepting several occasions when I saw it on the 

 wing, its long wings rendering it easily recognizable. It is by no means shy, and may be easily 

 approached at all ages. It inhabits dry woods, and does not wander ; for a male killed in April 

 had the plumage quite fresh, a fact I have not observed with migratory birds. In autumn it 

 draws near habitations. The female lays towards the end of May three eggs (a fourth she had 

 far advanced in the ovary) ; and the young leave the nest in the early days of August ; even when 

 flown they still cry, to call their parents. The male appears to have the same manners as the 

 female, while in A. nisus the contrary is the case. When opened I found in the old birds the 

 remains of small birds and locusts, in the young those of orthopterous insects. I have only 

 found this Hawk in the government of Voronege, never in that of Moscow. It seems not to go 

 so far north as A. nisus ; but I can give no idea of the extent of its range." This account was 

 written in 1850, since which time the species has been found in more southern countries, so that 

 we think there is but little doubt that it really does migrate regularly, though M. Severzow then 

 thought otherwise. 



Mr. W. Schliiter, of Halle (Zool. Garten, 1869, p. 374), was one of the first to record its 

 breeding in Europe. He there states that Mr. Hodek, when on an excursion to the Lower 

 Danube in the spring of 1869, found on the 13th of May a nest of this Sparrow-Hawk near the 

 river Timok, which forms the boundary between Servia and Bulgaria. It was placed on the edge 

 of an oak-grove near Puonica. in the Srbinskeplanin mountains. The nest was on the north- 

 eastern slope, situated about fifty feet from the edge of the wood, on a rather bushy oak not 

 above a foot in diameter, and was placed in a slight fork of the main stem about two thirds up 

 the height of the tree. It was about the size of a Sparrow-Hawk's nest, constructed chiefly of 

 slight dry twigs, garnished only on the edge with fresh oak-leaves and twigs, and was probably a 

 nest of the year constructed by the bird itself. It contained two eggs, slightly incubated, which 

 had probably been laid from six to eight days previously. Mr. Hodek shot the female bird as 

 she left the nest, but could not succeed in procuring the male. The two eggs out of this nest 

 are now in the collection of Dr. E. Rey, of Halle a. S. 



The following is Dr. Kriiper's account of the breeding of Accipiter Irevipes, for which we 

 are also indebted to M. Schliiter : — " I wrote about the occurrence of this Hawk in Asia Minor 

 in 1864, but I am sorry to say that some time elapsed before these notes on the birds of Smyrna 

 came into print ; they were, however, sent to Dr. Cabanis before my last journey was undertaken, 

 but only appeared in the 'Journal fur Ornithologie ' for 1869 (p. 21). Had they been published 

 earlier (for they were ready for the press late in 1864) this Hawk would certainly have been 

 included in the ' Catalogue des Oiseaux d'Europe,' published by Degland and Gerbe in 1867, as 

 many birds are included in that catalogue which are only stragglers to Europe. In the above 

 notes I stated that the spring migration of these Hawks at Smyrna was large, and that, further, 



