76 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



his " Life -Histories of Birds," that the u eggs, in some instances, are 

 laid on consecutive days, but we have positive proofs that sometimes 

 a single day is intermitted, and at other times, even two and three 

 days intervene between each deposit." In one of my nests I found 

 two days to intervene after the deposition of each of three eggs, and 

 the fifth ovum was deposited after an intervention of three days. 

 Gentry has found them breeding in the deserted nest of the common 

 grey squirrel. Mr. J. Hoopes Matlack, of West Chester, informs me 

 he found a pair breeding in an old crow's nest ; such sites, however, 

 Gentry advises us, are rarely chosen. It is said this species will 

 sometimes nidificate on a ledge or rock or hollow and decaying tree- 

 limbs. One nest, which I had the opportunity of observing from its 

 early commencement, was built by the united labor of both birds, 

 which occupied a period of seven days. Gentry, who, doubtless, has 

 had a more extensive experience, gives three or four days, according 

 to the style, as the time requisite for the construction of the nest. 

 Various writers assert that dry grass, leaves, moss, etc., aid in the 

 make-up of the nests ; such, no doubt is the case, but as previously 

 stated, I have found sticks and twigs to solely constitute the nests. 

 Incubation is alternately engaged in by both birds, which, while they 

 show great solicitude for their offspring, repelling all bird intruders 

 with the most determined zeal and pugnacity, will, when molested 

 by man, show marked timidity, and leave to his desecration their nest 

 and its contents. The young are carefully watched and fed by the 

 parents, chiefly on a diet of small birds sparrows principally until. 

 Gentry says, they are about six weeks old, when they are able to pro- 

 vide food for themselves. 



FOOD*. 



According to Nuttall, "this species feeds principally upon mice, 

 lizards, small birds, and sometimes even squirrels. In thinly settled 

 districts, this hawk seems to abound, and proves extremely destructive 

 to young chickens, a single bird having been known regularly to come 

 every day until he had carried away between twenty and thirty." 

 The same writer relates a circumstance, where he was one day con- 

 versing with a planter, when one of these hawks came down and 

 without any ceremony or heeding the loud cries of the housewife, 

 who most reluctantly witnessed the robbery, snatched away a chicken 

 directly before them. k ' In the fall, when the small birds gather in 

 favored spots about the streams, this little falcon is found in their 



*Dr. Coues says : " It preys chiefly upon small birds and quadrupeds, captured in the dashing- 

 manner of all the species of this group, and, like its small allies, feeds to some extent upon 

 insects." Since the advent and alarming increase of the English Sparrow (Passer domesticiis \ it is 

 not unusual for the Sharp-shinned Hawk to pay occasional visits to towns and villages where he 

 should be heartily welcomed for the destruction he causes among these feathered pests. 



