AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 



119 



into a thicket of briars about thirty yards off ; where I shot him 

 dead; and on coming up found the small Field Sparrow (fig. 2,) 

 quivering in his grasp. Both our aims had been taken in the same 

 instant, and, unfortunately for him, both were fatal. It is particu- 

 larly fond of watching along hedge rows, and in orchards, where 

 those small birds, represented in the same plate, usually resort. 

 When grasshoppers are plenty they form a considerable part of 

 its food. 



Tho small snakes, mice, lizards, &c. be favorite morsels with 

 this active bird; yet we are not to suppose it altogether destitute 

 of delicacy in feeding. It will seldom or never eat of any thing 

 that it has not itself killed, and even that, if not (as epicures would 

 term it) in good eating order, is sometimes rejected. A very re- 

 spectable friend, thro the medium of Mr. Bartram, informs me, 

 that one morning he observed one of these Hawks dart down on 

 the ground, and seize a mouse, which he cari'ied to a fence post; 

 where, after examining it for some time, he left it; and, a little 

 while after, pounced upon another mouse, which he instantly car- 

 ried off to his nest, in the hollow of a tree hard by. The gentle- 

 man, anxious to know why the Hawk had rejected the first mouse, 

 went up to it, and found it to be almost covered with lice, and 

 greatly emaciated ! Here was not only delicacy of taste, but sound 

 and prudent reasoning.- — " If I carry this to my nest,^^ thought he, 

 " it will fill it with vermin ; and hardly be worth eating.'^ 



The Blue Jays have a particular antipathy to this bird, and 

 frequently insult it by following and imitating its notes so exactly 

 as to deceive even those well acquainted with both. In return for 

 all this abuse the Hawk contents himself with, now and then, feast- 

 ing on the plumpest of his persecutors ; who are therefore in per- 

 petual dread of him ; and yet, thro some strange infatuation, or 

 from fear that if they lose sight of him he may attack them una- 

 wares, the Sparrow Hawk no sooner appears than the alarm is 

 given, and the whole posse of Jays follow. 



