30 
AMERICAN SPARROAV HAWK. 
pretty higli up, where the top or a large limb has been broken off. I 
have never seen its eggs ; but have been told that the female generally 
lays four or five, which are of a light brownish yellow color, spotted 
with a darker tint ; the young are fed on grasshoppers, mice, and small 
birds, the usual food of the parents. 
The habits and manners of this bird are well known. It flies rather 
irregularly, occasionally suspending itself in the air, hovering over a 
particular spot for a minute or tAvo, and then shooting off in another 
direction. It perches on the top of a dead tree, or pole in the middle 
of a field or meadow, and as it alights shuts its long wings so suddenly 
that they seem instantly to disappear ; it sits here in an almost perpen- 
dicular position, sometimes for an hour at a time, frequently jerking its 
tail, and reconnoitering the ground below, in every direction, for mice, 
lizards, &c. It approaches the farm-house, particularly in the morning, 
skulking about the barn-yard for mice or young chickens. It frequently 
plunges into a thicket after small birds, as if by random ; but always 
with a particular, and generally a fatal, aim. One day I observed a 
bird of this species perched on the highest top of a large poplar, on the 
skirts of the wood; and was in the act of raising the gun to my eye 
when he swept down with the rapidity of an arroAV 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 particularly 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. 
Though small snakes, mice, lizards, &c., be favorite morsels with this 
active bird ; yet we are ti-ot to suppose it altogether destitute of delicacy 
in feeding;. It will seldom or never eat of anvthinsr 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 respectable friend, through 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 
carried to a fence post ; where, after examining it for some time, he left 
it ; and, a little while after, pounced upon another mouse, Avhich he 
instantly carried off to his nest, in the hollow of a tree hard by. The 
gentleman, anxious to know yA\j 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 
