130 SPARROW HAWK 
The evidence as to the species of Eagle which inhabited 
Man can scarcely be deemed conclusive. 
Among the former residences of the Sea Eagle near our 
shores were the Mourne Mountains, Fair Head in Antrim, 
Rathlin Island, Burrow Head, the Mull of Galloway, 
Martindale and Borrowdale in Cumberland. Several of 
these eyries must have been within sight of the Isle of 
Man. It still perhaps nests in Mayo, and is said to have 
done so in Donegal about twenty years ago. There are yet 
nesting sites in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides, as well 
as on the Scottish mainland, but in general the bird has 
become a rare and accidental straggler in the British Isles. 
ACCIPITER NISUS (Linn.). SPARROW 
HAWK. 
Manx (Hawk generally), *Shawk! (M.S. D. and Cr.). (Cf. Se. 
Gaelic, Seobhag ; Irish, Seabhac ; Welsh, Hebog.) *Shirragh 
(M.S. D.); Stannair (Cr.) (likely =the Kestrel) ; *Shirragh 
ny Giark (Cr.)=Hen Hawk, refers likely to the above species. 
In Deut. xiv. 13, Shawk =‘ Glede,’ and in Lev. xi. 16, ‘Hawk’ 
in the English version ; in Lev. xi. 14, ‘ Kite’ is rendered by 
Shyrragh. Shirragh is now sometimes pronounced ‘Thar- 
ragh.’ 
The Sparrow Hawk is fairly abundant in Man, and many 
plantations all over the isle have pairs regularly nesting 
in the same near neighbourhood. It builds its own nest, 
a substantial structure, and the eggs are laid, on an average, 
about the middle of May. 
Whatever truth there may be in reports of this species 
nesting elsewhere in cliffs, no such case has ever been 
~ reported in Man. 
1 This word is spelled in a way quite out of keeping with Manx orthography, 
evidently through a wish to approximate to the English name. 
