FALCONS 143 



gufka region, young out of the nest having been seen June 3, 

 1908. It has been observed in June in the Talladega Moun- 

 tains, at Searles, Logan, Ardell, and near Tuscaloosa. Winter- 

 ing individuals of this race have been taken at Greensboro 

 (October 2, November 21 and 28, December 13 and 26) ; Bara- 

 chias (November 21, 1911) ; Autaugaville (November 30, 

 1911) ; Carlton (February 29, 1912) ; Whistler (February 6, 

 1912); and Baldwin County (October 2, 1892). On Sand 

 Mountain, during a ten days' trip by wagon, late in October 

 and in November, only two were seen — one near Button, 

 October 31, and one near Oleander, November 7, 1918. 



General habits. — This is our smallest hawk, easily recog- 

 nized by its small size and peculiar, butterflylike flight. 

 In the South it is found most frequently about dead- 

 enings, where an abundance of rotting stubs furnishes attrac- 

 tive nesting sites. It is usually rather shy and on the ap- 

 proach of danger flies off swiftly with loud cries of kiUee, 

 killee. A fire started in a grass field is sure to attract a num- 

 ber of these little hawks, who come to capture the grasshop- 

 pers thus driven out. 



The bird's usual method of hunting is to perch on a stub, 

 fence post, telephone pole, or similar point of vantage and 

 there aw^ait the appearance of game on the ground below or 

 in a near-by thicket. When some desirable object is espied, 

 the hawk flies over the spot and hovering for a moment drops 

 lightly to the ground, seizes the prey — mouse, grasshopper, or 

 lizard — in its talons, and returns to its perch to devour it. 

 Small birds, or sometimes even birds nearly as large as itself, 

 are captured by a swift dash into the brush. 



The eggs are laid in cavities in hollow trees, usually in a 

 dead stub standing in a field. In some sections of the West 

 the bird occasionally makes its nest in ledges or in holes of 

 cliffs or cut banks or sometimes in old nests of the crow or 

 magpie. 



Food habits. — The sparrow hawk is the most useful of all 

 the hawks, and the practice of shooting it wantonly simply 

 because it belongs to the hawk family is much to be deplored 

 from the standpoint of either the nature lover or the farmer. 



