92 THE AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWK. 



retreats to her winter quarters, dismal clouds obscure the eastern horizon, 

 the sun assumes a sickly dimness, hoarfrosts cover the ground, and the long 

 night encroaches on the domains of light. No longer are heard the feathered 

 choristers of the woods, who throng towards more congenial climes, and in 

 their rear rushes the Sparrow-Hawk. 



Its flight is rather irregular, nor can it be called protracted. It flies over 

 a field, but seldom farther at a time; even in barren lands, a few hundred 

 yards are all the extent it chooses to go before it alights. During the love 

 season alone it may be seen sailing for half an hour, which is, I believe, the 

 longest time I ever saw one on the wing. When chasing a bird, it passes 

 along with considerable celerity, but never attains the speed of the Sharp- 

 shinned Hawk or of other species. When teazing an Eagle or a Turkey- 

 Buzzard, its strength seems to fail in a few minutes, and if itself chased by a 

 stronger Hawk, it soon retires into some thicket for protection. Its migra- 

 tions are pursued by day, and with much apparent nonchalance. 



The cry of this bird so much resembles that of the European Kestrel, to 

 which it seems allied, that, were it rather stronger in intonation, it might be 

 mistaken for it. At times it emits its notes while perched, but principally 

 when on the wing, and more continually before and after the birth of its 

 young, the weaker cries of which it imitates when they have left the nest 

 and follow their parents. 



The Sparrow-Hawk does not much regard the height of the place in 

 which it deposits its eggs, provided it be otherwise suitable, but I never saw 

 it construct a nest for itself. It prefers the hole of a Woodpecker, but now 

 and then is satisfied with an abandoned crow's nest. So prolific is it, that 

 I do not recollect having ever found fewer than five eggs or young in the 

 nest, and, as I have already said, the number sometimes amounts to seven. 

 The eggs are nearly globular, of a deep buff-colour, blotched all over with 

 dark brown and black. This Hawk sometimes raises two broods in the 

 season, in the Southern States, where in fact it may be said to be a constant 

 resident; but in the Middle and Eastern States, seldom if ever more than 

 one. Nay, I have thought that in the South the eggs of a laying are more 

 numerous than in the North, although of this I am not quite certain. 



So much attached are they to their stand, that they will return to it and 

 sit there by preference for months in succession. My friend Bachman 

 informed me that, through this circumstance, he has caught as many as seven 

 in the same field, each from its favourite stump. 



Although the greater number of these Hawks remove southward at the 

 approach of winter, some remain even in the State of New York during the 

 severest weather of that season. These keep in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of barns, where now and then they secure a rat or a mouse for their support. 



