486 



SPARROW HAWK. 



nestling- under the eaves, where they dig- out the mortar with their 

 strong- bills, when they do not find holes large enough for their accom- 

 modation. It probably never struck those wise persons, that by thus 

 encouraging the Sparrows to breed, they are promoting the increase of 

 the race, and unless they multiply their Sparrow pots yearly, they may 

 be almost certain that the supernumeraries will resort to eaves nearest 

 their birth-place. In Holland, square boxes are placed on the house- 

 tops, to entice the stork (Ardea ciconia) to build ; and for the same 

 purpose it was customary in France, in Belon's time, to place wheels 

 there, a practice said to be still followed in some parts of Germany.* 1 



The Sparrow lays six eggs of a whitish colour, spotted with dusky- 

 brown or ash-grey, and varying much in the shades as well as the 

 thickness of the spots; each weighs from forty-three to forty-eight 

 grains. Accidental varieties occur, such as white, black, and yellowish. 



SPARROW HAWK (Accipiter fringillarius, Ray.) 



* Falco Nisus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 131. 31 Fauna. Suec. No. 6'9 Gmel. Syst. l.p. 



280. 31 Lath. Ind. On. 1. p. 44. 107 Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 25. 



— Muller, No. 71. — Buteo Nisus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 55 — Accipiter Fringil- 

 larius, Raii, Syn. p. 18. A. 2 Will. p. 51. t. 5.— Vigors, Zool. Jour. 1. p. 327. 



L'Epervier, Buff. Ois. 1. p. 225.— Ib. pi. Enl. 467. and 412.— Temm. Man. 

 d'Orn. 1. p.. 56. 2. — Die Sperber, Bechst. Tasschenb, Deut. 1. p. 29. — Sparrow 



Hawk, Br. Zool. 1. No. 62.— lb. fol. t. A. 10. A. 11 Arct. Zool. 2. p. 226. 



N.—Lath. Syn. 1. p. 99. 85.— Ib. Supp. p. 26.— Lewin's Br. Birds, 1. t. 20.— 



Haye's Br. Birds, t. 3 — Will. (Angl.) p. 86.— Mont. Orn. Diet Bewick's Br. 



Birds. 1. p. 27 Shaw's Zool. 7. p, 187. — Low's Fauna. Oread, p. 38. — Pult. 



Cat. Dorset.— Selby, pi. 13. and 13. p. 33. * 



The weight of the male of this species, is about five ounces ; that of 

 the female, nine ; the former measures, in length, about twelve inches ; 

 the latter, fifteen ; the bill is bluish, dusky at the point ; cere yellow ; 

 irides bright orange yellow. In some of both sexes the plumage of the 

 upper parts are of a deep bluish grey ; in others brown, edged with 

 ferruginous ; the under parts of the female are more fully marked with 

 minute undulated lines of deep brown ; the male is inclined to rust- 

 colour on the breast, which in the other is whitish ; on the back of the 

 head, in both sexes, is an obscure broken patch of white ; quill feathers 

 dusky, barred with black on the outer webs, and spotted with white at 

 the base of the inner ; the tail like the back, with broad bars of dusky 

 black, the extreme point whitish ; legs long, slender, and yellow. 



This is a very common species in most of the wooded or enclosed 

 parts of the kingdom, but less frequent in the more champaign parts. 

 It seldom makes a nest, but generally takes possession of that which 



J Montbeillard, Oiseaux, La Cicogne blanche. 



