SHARP-SHINNED OR SLATE-COLOURED HAWK. 103 



supplied with the smaller birds, on which it principally feeds. Again, after 

 having satisfied its hunger, this little warrior at times rises to a great height, 

 and indeed now and then is scarcely discernible from the ground. 



I found a nest of this Hawk in a hole of the well-known "Rock-in-cave" 

 on the Ohio River, in the early part of the spring of 1819. It was simply 

 constructed, having been formed of a few sticks and some grasses carelessly 

 interwoven, and placed about two feet, from the entrance of the hole. I had 

 the good fortune to secure the female bird, while she was sitting on her 

 eggs, which were nearly hatched, and it was from that individual that I made 

 the figure in the plate. The eggs, four in number, were almost equally 

 rounded at both ends, though somewhat elongated, and their ground colour 

 was white, with a livid tinge, scarcely discernible however amid the nume- 

 rous markings and blotches of reddish-chocolate with which they were irre- 

 gularly covered. The second opportunity which I had of seeing a nest of 

 this species, occurred not far from Louisville in Kentucky, when I accidentally 

 observed one of these Hawks dive into the hollow prong of a broken branch 

 of a sycamore overhanging the waters of the Ohio. Here the eggs were five 

 in number, and deposited on the mouldering fragments of the decayed wood. 

 The third and last opportunity happened when I was on my way from 

 Henderson to St. Genevieve, on horseback. I saw a pair of these birds 

 forming a nest in the forks of a low oak, in a grove in the centre of the 

 prairie which I was then crossing. The young in the nest I have never 

 seen. 



This interesting species usually resorts to the fissures of rocks for the 

 purpose of there passing the hours of repose, and generally in places by no 

 means easy of access, such as precipitous declivities overhanging some turbu- 

 lent stream. It is often not until the darkness has so much gained on the 

 daylight as to render objects difficult to be distinguished, that it betakes itself 

 to its place of rest, and then I have only been assured of its arrival by the 

 few cries which it utters on such occasions. The earliness of its departure 

 has often much puzzled me, for with all my anxiety to witness it, I have 

 never succeeded in doing so, although on two or three occasions I have 

 watched the spot more than half an hour before dawn, and remained patiently 

 waiting until long after the sun had risen, when I clambered to the hole, and 

 always found it empty. 



The food of this Hawk consists chiefly of birds of various sizes, from the 

 smallest of our warblers to the Passenger Pigeon or young chickens, the 

 latter appearing to afford a special temptation to it, as has been above related. 

 I am also aware that it feeds occasionally on small reptiles and insects, and I 

 shot the male represented in the plate, on wing, whilst it held in its claws 

 the small Shrew also represented. It is extremely expert at seizing some of 



