SPARROW HAWK 
199 
of " Blue " and " Red " Hawk respectively. Im- 
mature birds, however, are brown on the back, but 
it is a dark, smoky brown, quite distinct from the 
chestnut of the Kestrel. The male bird, as is the 
case with many of the Hawks, is considerably 
smaller than the female. The breast is barred 
transversely with brown, another point which aids 
in distinguishing this species from the Kestrel, 
which has its breast not barred, but streaked or 
spotted, more after the fashion of the Thrush. The 
Sparrow Hawk differs again in generally building 
its own nest, while even when it occupies the old 
nest of a Crow or Wood Pigeon it usually does a 
good deal of re-building and re-furnishing for it- 
self It builds in beeches, oaks, firs, spruces, and 
various other kinds of tree, and at very various 
heights from the ground — anything, in fact, be- 
tween fifteen or twenty feet up, and the top of the 
tallest tree it can find. The nest is made of sticks, 
and is usually flat in shape and very fairly solid in 
construction. It is lined with smaller twigs. The 
five or six eggs are laid, as a rule, in the first half 
of May ; they are very pale blue in colour, hand- 
somely spotted and blotched with large, open spots 
of rich chestnut brown. Sometimes the spots are 
few, slight, and much stained or smudged ; but 
their distinctly bluish-white ground colour always 
prevents them being confused with the Kestrel's. 
