THE SPARROW-HAWK 157 



Ing-ground, it wings its easy way to the nearest hedge, darts along 

 by the side, turns sharply to the right or left through an opening 

 caused by a gate or gap, and woe to any little bird which it may 

 encounter, either perched on a twig or resting on the ground. Un- 

 erring in aim, and secure of its holdfast, it allows its victims no 

 chance of escape : one miserable scream, and their fate is sealed. 

 And even if the prey detects its coming enemy, and seeks safety in 

 flight, its only hope is to sUp into the thick bushes and trust to con- 

 cealment : resort to the open field is all but certain death. Nor 

 is it fastidious in its choice of food — leverets, young rabbits, mice, 

 partridges, thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, larks, pipits, and many 

 others are equal favourites. It resorts very frequently to the home- 

 stead and farmyard, not so much in quest of chickens, which, by the 

 way, it does not despise, as for the sake of the small birds which 

 abound in such places. There it is a bold robber, httle heeding the 

 presence of men, suddenly dashing from behind some bam or corn- 

 rick, and rapidly disappearing with its luckless prey struggling in 

 its talons, pursued, perhaps, by the vociferous twitter of the out- 

 raged flock, but not dispirited against another onslaught. This 

 coursing for its prey, though the usual, is not the only method of 

 furnishing his larder pursued by the Sparrow-Hawk. He has been 

 known to station himself on the branch of a tree in the neighbour- 

 hood of some favourite resort of Sparrows, concealed himself, but 

 commanding a fair view of the flock below. With an intent as 

 deadly as that of the fowler when he points his gun, he puts on the 

 attitude of flight before he quits his perch, then selecting his victim, 

 and pouncing on it aU but simultaneously, he retires to devour his 

 meal and to return to his post as soon as the hubbub he has excited 

 has subsided somewhat. At times he pays dear for his temerity. 

 Pouncing on a bird which the sportsman has put up and missed, he 

 receives the contents of the second barrel ; making a swoop on the 

 bird-catcher's caU-bird, he becomes entangled in the meshes ; or 

 dashing through a glazed window at a caged Canary bird, he finds 

 his retreat cut off. 



As is the case with most predaceous birds, the female is larger 

 and bolder than the male, and wiU attack birds superior to herself 

 in size. Though a fierce enemy, she is an affectionate mother, and 

 will defend her young at the risk of her life. She builds her nest, or 

 appropriates the deserted nest of a Crow, in trees, or if they be 

 wanting, in a cliff, and lays four or five eggs. The young are very 

 voracious, and are fed principally on small birds, the number of 

 which consumed may be inferred from the fact that no less than 

 sixteen Larks, Sparrows, and other small birds, were on one occa- 

 sion found in a nest, the female parent belonging to which had been 

 shot while conveying to them a young bird just brought to the 

 neighbourhood of the nest by the male ; the latter, it was conjec- 

 tured, having brought them all, and deposited them in the nest 



