%6 



Its Game. 



Its bignefs, 

 length, and 

 breadth. 



Beak, 



Nares, 

 Tongue, 

 Eyes, 

 Crown. 



Colour of the 

 upper fide, 



Underfide. 



The Wings, 



Train, 



Legs and 

 Toes, 



Number of 

 Eggs- 

 Its Food. 



Its Metde. 



The manner 

 of catching 

 Sparrow- 

 hawks near 

 Conftantinople. 



o^nciTHOLogr. iwiT. 



long, of a cinereous or dun colour, with four or five crofs blackifh bars, ftandingat 

 a great diftance each from other. In each feather of the Breaft there is a black circular 

 line near the top, running parallel to the edges of the feather, and infome alfbthe 

 (haft and middle part of the feather is black. 



It takes not only Partridge and Pheafant, but alfo greater Fowl, as Geefe and Cranes ; 

 Sometimes alio it catches Conies. Our Englift^ Authors who have written of Falcon- 

 ry make this the fame with the French Autour or AJiur, although Aldrovandm would 

 have the Jflttr, which he takes to be the AJierias of Arifiotle, to be a different bird. 

 But I fuppofe the Gofiawk, was not well known to Aldrovandm. 



§. ir. 



The 'Sparrow-haw^ Accipiter Fringillarius feu Nifus Recentiorum. 



IT is almoft as big as a Pigeon. Its length from Bill-point to Tail end about fourteen 

 inches : The diftance between the tips of the Wings extended twenty fix 

 Inches. 



Its Beak is ihort, hooked, blue, black toward the tip: The Bads of the upper 

 Chap covered with a yellowilri green skin, ( which they call the Sear or rather Cere 

 from the Latine word Cera, fignifying wax, becaufe it is for the moft part of a Wax- 

 colour,) having an angular Appendix or tooth on each fide under the Nofthril. The 

 Nofthrils are oblong 3 the Palate blue 3 the Tongue thick, black, and a little cleft: 

 The Eyes of mean fize, with yellow hides, over-hung by brows, prominent like the 

 Eaves of a hpufc. The Crown of the head is of a dark brown : Above the Eyes, and 

 in the hinder part of the head fometimes are white feathers. [_ The bottoms of the 

 feathers in Head or Neck are white. ] The reft of the upper fide, Back, Shoulders, 

 Wings, Neck, are of the fame dark brown, excepting fbme feathers of the Wings 

 which are fpotted with white. [ In another bird the Head and Wings were of a dark 

 afh-colour or blue, ~] The colour of the under fide', vi&.the Neck, Breaft, Belly, Sides, 

 and Wings various, of white and blackilh, or ruflet : Ruflet waved lines thick-fet 

 crofting the whole Breaft and Belly, and indeed, each fingle feather 3 the white inter- 

 mediate (paces are broader than the ruflet lines. The feathers under the Chin and by 

 the Legs of the lower Mandible are white, only their middle parts about the fhaft, 

 especially toward the tip, brown or ruflet. 



The Wings when clofed fcarce reach to the middle of the Tail. The flag-feathers 

 are twenty four, in whole under fides appear, on the interiour webs of each, dark 

 tranfverfe marks^or fpots. 



The Tail is almoft two Palms long, conOfting of twelve feathers, having five or fix 

 crofs black bars. The tips of the feathers are white. The Thighs are ftrong and flefhy, 

 as in all birds of prey 3 the Legs long, flender, yellow 3 the Toes alfo long 3 the out- 

 moft, as in other Hawks, being joyned to the middlemoft by a Membrane below. The 

 Talons black. It lays about five white Eggs, fpotted near the blunt end with a Circle, 

 as it were a Coronet, of bloud-red fpecks. 



It feeds only upon Birds ( as our Fowlers affirm J never touching Beetles or other 

 Infects. 



For its bignefs it is a very bold and couragious Bird, and is frequently trained up 

 and made for hawking. 



Bellonius acquaints us with a common and familiar way of taking this kind of 

 Hawks about the Str eight of Propontis, in thefe words. Not far diftant (faith he) from 

 the outlet of the Euxine Sea, at the entrance of the Streight leading to the Propontk, 

 having climbed up a very high Hill that is there, by chance we found a Fowler on the 

 top intent upon the catching of Sparrow-hawks. Whereas it was now paft mid-April, 

 at which time all forts of birds are wont to be very bufie in breeding or building their 

 Nefts, it feemed to us wonderful ftrange and unufual, to fee fuch a multitude of Kites 

 and Hawks coming flying from the right fide of the Sea. This Fowler did with fuch 

 induftry and dexterity lay wait for them, that not Co much as one efcaped him. He 

 took at leaft twelve Hawks every hour. The manner thus : He himfelf lay hid behind 

 a little bufhet, before which he had levelled a fquare plat or floor, about two paces 

 long and broad, being two or three paces diftant from the bufhet. In the borders of 

 this floor he had pitcht down [ or thruft into the ground ] (ix ftakes, at due diftances, 

 of about the thicknefs of ones thumb [ the word is Pollick, and may poffibly fignifie an 

 inch-thick] of a mans height, two on each fide : On the top of each, on that fide 



which 



