198 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
sometimes on a tree on some small island in a 
lake ; two eggs are laid, dull white in colour, only 
rarely marked with faint stains of red. 
SPARROW HAWK. 
{^Accipiter nisus.) 
Blue Hawk, Pigeon Hawk. — This fierce and 
dashing little hawk manages to maintain itself in 
fair numbers in most parts of the country where 
there are woods to give it shelter, though farmers 
and keepers do their best to extirpate it. It is 
without doubt a serious enemy to young poultry 
and game ; but it is also very fond of a Wood 
Pigeon, and the persecution of the Sparrow Hawk 
is certainly one of the causes of the immense and 
destructive increase of these birds from which 
farmers have suffered for years past. A Sparrow 
Hawk dashing along the edge of a wood in close 
pursuit of a Blackbird, Chaffinch, or some other 
common species is even to-day not an uncommon 
country sight, and most people know the little heaps 
of feathers by the hedgeside which show where 
the Sparrow Hawk has dined. It can generally be 
distinguished from the Kestrel, the other common 
country Hawk, by its blue-grey back, whereas the 
Kestrel is reddish-brown ; hence the local names 
