THE AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWK. 93 



Sometimes this species is severely handled by the larger Hawks. One of 

 them who had caught a Sparrow, and was flying off with it, was suddenly 

 observed by a Red-tailed Hawk, which in a few minutes made it drop its 

 prey: this contented the pursuer and enabled the pursued to escape. 



Theodore Lincoln, Esq. of Dennisville, Maine, informed me that the 

 Sparrow-Hawk is in the habit of attacking the Republican Swallow, while 

 sitting on its eggs, deliberately tearing the bottle-neck-like entrance of its 

 curious nest, and seizing the occupant for its prey. This is as fit a place as 

 any to inform you, that the father of that gentleman, who has resided at 

 Dennisville upwards of forty years, found the Swallow just mentioned abun- 

 dant there on his arrival in that then wild portion of the country. 



In the Floridas the Sparrow-Hawk pairs as early as February, in the 

 Middle States about April, and in the northern parts of Maine seldom before 

 June. Few are seen in Nova Scotia, and none in Newfoundland, or on the 

 western coast of Labrador. Although abundant in the interior of FJast 

 Florida, I did not observe one on any of the keys which border the coast of 

 that singular peninsula. During one of my journeys down the Mississippi, 

 I frequently observed some of these birds standing on low dead branches 

 over the water, from which they would pick up the beetles that had acci- 

 dentally fallen into the stream. 



No bird can be more easily raised and kept than this beautiful Hawk. I 

 once found a young male that had dropped from the nest before it was able 

 to fly. Its cries for food attracted my notice, and I discovered it lying near 

 a log. It was large, and covered with soft white down, through which the 

 young feathers protruded. Its little blue bill and yet grey eyes made it look 

 not unlike an owl. I took it home, named it Nero, and provided it with 

 small birds, at which it would scramble fiercely, although yet unable to tear 

 their flesh, in which I assisted it. In a few weeks it grew very beautiful, 

 and became so voracious, requiring a great number of birds daily, that I 

 turned it out, to see how it would shift for itself. This proved a gratification 

 to both of us: it soon hunted for grasshoppers and other insects, and on 

 returning from my walks I now and then threw a dead bird high in the air, 

 which it never failed to perceive from its stand, and towards which it launch- 

 ed with such quickness as sometimes to catch it before it fell to the ground. 

 The little fellow attracted the notice of his brothers, brought up hard by, 

 who, accompanied by their parents, at first gave it chase, and forced it to 

 take refuge behind one of the window-shutters, where it usually passed the 

 night, but soon became gentler towards it, as if forgiving its desertion. My 

 bird was fastidious in the choice of food, would not touch a Woodpecker, 

 however fresh, and as he grew older, refused to eat birds that were in the 

 least tainted. To the last he continued kind to me, and never failed to return 



