292 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
arrives from the south early in March, or as soon as the 
ground is nearly free from snow, and it does not retire ( 
southward again till late in the fall, although it is some- x Wo 
2 = : A : \ 
times seen migrating in large scattered flocks in August or Zs 
September, as described by Professor Frank Smith, in the f 
Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club, Vol. V, Fig. 75. 
1904, p. Viren Bill of Sparrow 
It is found everywhere throughout the state, commonly eas 
perched upon some dead stub or bare limb, or more frequently on telegraph 
wires or on a fencepost in the open field. Often it is seen hovering almost 
stationary above a clover field, darting down into the grass to seize a grass- 
hopper, cricket, or other large insect, or almost as often a field mouse. 
Rarely is it seen following birds, and when so engaged the victims are as 
often English Sparrows as any other species. On the whole it is an ex- 
tremely beneficial bird and should be rigidly protected. True, it does 
occasionally kill some small insect-eating bird, but these lapses from 
virtue are more than atoned for by the continual war which it wages upon 
injurious insects, field mice, and other vermin. Among 291 stomachs 
reported upon by Dr. A. K. Fisher, only 1 contained remains of a game 
bird (quail); 53, other birds; 89, mice; 12, other mammals; 12, reptiles or 
batrachians; 215, insects; and 29, spiders. 
In its nesting habits it is peculiar, since it makes its home almost in- 
variably in the hollow of a tree, usually a more or less natural hollow caused 
by decay, but not infrequently the hole of a woodpecker, sometimes already 
deserted, but often deliberately wrested from the owner, usually after a 
decisive conflict. As a rule the nest is high up in some dead tree, but 
sometimes quite near the ground. Occasionally a bird-house or dove-cot 
is used, but these are exceptions. The eggs in Michigan are laid between 
the middle of May and the first of June. They range in number from two 
to five (occasionally six or seven), and are generally white or rusty white, 
thickly speckled and spotted with cinnamon brown, often so thickly as to 
appear of uniform color. They average 1.38 by 1.11 inches. 
As pointed out earlier, this true falcon should not be confounded with 
the Sharp-shinned Hawk, which is of about the same size and is frequently 
called the “Sparrow Hawk.” The present species is a valuable bird to the 
farmer, while the Sharp-shinned Hawk is very destructive to wild birds 
and small chickens. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Bill of the falcon type, with tooth and notch; second and third primaries longest and 
about equal, only the first and second distinctly emarginate on inner web, and in many 
females and young only the first; tail mainly deep rust-red (chestnut-rufous), with a 
broad sub-terminal black band. 
Adult male: Top of head bluish gray, with or without a central patch of rusty; back, 
rump and scapulars bright rusty, with more or less numerous black bars; each side of head 
with two conspicuous black bars, and three more black patches encircling the neck, seven 
black spots in all; chin and throat white, unspotted; rest of under parts white, either pure 
or rusty, and with or without streaks and circular spots of deep black; primaries black 
above, their inner webs with numerous white bars; remainder of upper surface of wing 
and coverts clear bluish-gray or bluish-slate, more or less spotted with black; tail with 
the basal three-fourths rich rust-red without bars (except sometimes on outer two pairs), 
then a broad subterminal bar of deep black and a narrow white tip. 
Adult female: Head markings precisely as in male, including the seven black spots, 
but entire upper parts back of neck, including upper surface of tail, narrowly cross-barred 
with rusty and black, the subterminal black tail-band much narrower than in male, and 
the tip rusty or buffy, not white; chin and throat white, as in male, but breast and belly 
