OF VIRGINIA 125 
increased we notice the damage done to birds and young 
chickens. The average person, though, confounds this 
bird with the Sharp-shinned Hawk, and the Sparrow 
Hawk gets much credit for damage done by it. In fact, 
the Sparrow Hawk gets entirely too much credit for harm 
done by the Sharp-shinned, as he seldom touches birds or 
small chickens unless there is a scarcity of his regular food. 
Small mammals, especially mice, crickets, grasshoppers, 
beetles, lizards, and small snakes, form its principal diet. 
We first become acquainted with the Sparrow Hawk as he 
sits on the telegraph wire or post, as we ride along our 
country road. As we approach he darts downward and 
moves on a pole or two, this performance going on for 
sometimes half a mile or more. He is looking down on 
the ground beneath for his food; usually a goodly patch 
of briars, bushes and weeds, line the roadside under the 
wires, and in this jungle he intently watches the various 
forms of life. The last week in April finds these birds 
hunting a nesting site in the shape of a natural hollow in 
some live tree, or a flicker’s hole in a dead tree. No nest- 
ing material is used; a few chips on the bottom of a 
cavity are sometimes found. May 1st to 15th finds fresh 
eggs, four to five in number, a light cream ground color, 
spotted, blotched and specked with several shades of 
brown. The height of nesting cavity depends on the tree; 
from twenty-five to sixty feet up is a general average. 
Unfortunately, we still have the Hawk and Owl Scalp 
Bounty Law in many of our counties yet, and this most 
useful little Sparrow Hawk is becoming a scarce article, 
T regret to say. The little damage done to fall- and spring- 
hatched chicks, when they can not then procure their regu- 
lar food, is far outclassed by the good they do destroying 
obnoxious mammals, insects, beetles, ete., and they should 
be protected fully. They rear but a single brood a season. 
