THE SPARROW-HAWK. 125 
a finch which it carries a little distance, and then settles upon the ground to 
devour, first plucking off most of the feathers, and leaving them in a neat little 
heap to testify to the fact that it has here lately enjoyed a meal. Often the 
Sparrow-Hawk will be viewed dashing into a confused flock of small birds in the 
air, especially in the neighbourhood of a rick-yard, seizing one and bearing it 
away. Great is the anger of the Swallows when one of them becomes the victim, 
they will mob and chase the tyrant with shrill angry cries. Often, too, will the 
Sparrow-Hawk drop like a thunder-bolt from the sky upon a Thrush feeding upon 
the lawn; there will be a shrill scream, and in an instant, before there is any 
possibility of rescue, it is snatched up and carried away. The Blackbird is a 
favourite quarry, vain is it for him to attempt his usual method of escape by 
darting into some thick hedge or coppice, the Hawk will follow in all his windings 
and cannot be shaken off. Still larger game is sought; Wood-Pigeons are struck 
off their perches on the trees, while the feathers left on the ground beneath will 
show where they have been devoured. Some moors below the writer’s house in 
Wales were regularly worked by Sparrow-Hawks for Snipe, and most of them 
were killed as they dropped in. Merlins were at first regarded as the aggressors, 
but the Snipe feathers found upon the ground at one particular spot to which 
they were carried to be eaten, and a cock Sparrow-Hawk put off one morning 
from a Snipe still living that he reluctantly quitted, made it unquestionable who 
the Snipe destroyers were. Young Partridges and Pheasants are often carried off 
and, at the time the young are to be provided for, the hen Sparrow-Hawk is 
certainly the most deadly foe to game of all the British raftores. Tame Pigeons 
are common victims, the robber will return for them again and again, as long as 
any are left in the dove-cotes. Many a Sparrow-Hawk has met its death by 
dashing against a plate-glass window attracted by a Canary hanging up in its 
cage inside. Wild and untameable as is this feathered Ishmaelite, falconers have 
trained and used him to take Partridges, Quail, Blackbirds, and other small birds; 
the writer once attempted this difficult task; with a long leash attached to the 
Hawk’s leg a few flights were obtained, but nothing further achieved. The 
Sparrow-Hawk dreads no foe, and will attack anything; one day when the writer 
was feeding a fine Falcon upon his wrist, a little cock Sparrow-Hawk seated close 
by upon a bow-perch suddenly darted up, and, the length of his leash allowing 
it, seized the Falcon round her throat with his long feet, and would speedily have 
throttled her had she not been rescued from his tenacious grasp with some diffi- 
culty. Frequently this bold Hawk will swoop down and pick up birds that have 
been shot almost at the sportsman’s feet; this has happened to the writer more 
than once when he has been pursuing Plovers and Sandpipers upon the shore. 
