SPARRO W-HA WK. 
161 
and certainly their preying on martins and swallows is 
unusual, though hobbies frequently do so ; and we have 
found that the sparrow-hawk very rarely, if ever, lays 
in an old nest. 
Year after year this species resorts to the same copse 
to nest, constructing a fresh nest every year — a large 
structure of fine twigs — the old nests of former years 
being frequently occupied by long-eared owls or kestrels. 
Four to six eggs are laid, but we have known instances 
of a nest containing seven found at Bumper's Oak, near 
King Somborne, and one with eight at Ridgway, near 
Overton. 
It is remarkable how this bird contrives to escape the 
persecution waged against it by gamekeepers, and to 
continue to levy toll on the young game, for the nest is 
most easy to find and often placed in a most conspicuous 
situation, in a tree by the side of, or even overhanging, 
a path in a wood, or at the edge of a copse, rather 
than in the depths of it ; several we have known built 
close to keepers' cottages ; and besides, a good many 
feathers are dropped in the vicinity of the nest, and there 
are always some pieces of down adhering to the twigs of a 
nest that contains eggs. 
There is' evidently a migration of this species, for on 
May 28th, 1902, one was recorded from the Warner Light 
Vessel, which rested on the vessel's rail for a few minutes, 
and then flew off northwards, and two days later another 
was noted flying in the same direction. And Mr. Meade- 
Waldo says there is a large autumn migration.^ 
Shore in his " History of Hampshire " says (quoting 
from Blount's " Ancient Tenures of Land ") that at 
* " Victoria History of Hants." 
