THE AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWK 



CHARLES BENDIRE 



NEXT to the Cuban Sparrow-hawk, this handsome little 

 falcon is the smallest of our diurnal birds of prey. It is 

 pretty generally distributed over nearly the entire North 

 American continent, excepting the extreme arctic portions 

 thereof. In the eastern United States it is not nearly so 

 abundant as throughout the west, where I have found it a 

 common summer resident almost everywhere, if suitable 

 timber for nesting sites was available. It winters from about 

 latitude 38° N. and southward in the eastern United States, as 

 well as in the Rocky Mountain region; on the Pacific Coast 

 from about latitude 41° N., though stragglers remain in shel- 

 tered and favorable localities at still higher latitudes through- 

 out the country. 



They usually arrive on their old nesting grounds in the cen- 

 tral portions of their range about the middle of March, some 

 seasons not before the beginning of April, and at later dates 

 farther to the northward. In Florida nidification begins about 

 the middle of March, sometimes in the last half of February; 

 in southern Arizona, southern Texas and southern California 

 about the first week in April; in the middle States from April 

 15th to May loth, and in the more northern States from May 

 ist to June ist. 



The most common nesting place of the Sparrow-hawk is 

 in holes of trees, either natural cavities or the abandoned exca- 

 vations of our larger Woodpeckers. In regions where such 



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