30 
FALCON I DiE. 
in almost every stage of plumage, .1 experienced no difficulty 
in identifying it. The above are the only two occasions upon 
which it has come within my own observation, but throughout 
the whole extent of Shetland I have never met with any 
person who could satisfy me that he had even seen it, or who 
had the slightest idea how to distinguish it from the Peregrine 
Falcon. Specimens of the latter in my collection were as often 
called Goshawks as by their own name. 
THE SPAEEOWHAWK. 
Acd'piter nisus. 
MAALIN. 
This species is not included by Dr Laurence Edmondston 
in his list, which appeared in the fourth volume of the 
Wernerian Memoirs, but his brother Arthur, writing in 1809, 
some years previously, when the bird was more abundant, 
mentions it as follows : — Fcdco nisus. The Sparrowhawk is 
more numerous than the former [Goshawk]. He is a very 
bold bird, and pursues starlings and other small birds down 
chimneys and in at windows, and he is sometimes taken him- 
self on these occasions.”* In the ''Zoologist” for 1844 (p. 459), 
Thomas Edmondston reports it as " not common,” and the same 
may be said of it at the present time, although a few breed 
here. In Orkney it is abundant ; and, from all that can be 
ascertained, it was certainly far more plentiful in Shetland 
many years ago than it is at present ; from what cause it would 
be difficult to determine, unless from its boldness having 
rendered it a somewhat easy mark to the more numerous 
gunners of later times. The few nests I have seen and heard 
of have usually been situated in the grassy ledges of sea cliffs, 
but I have twice known a pair build in the rugged inland cliff 
at Colister in Unst. The Sparrowhawk arrives about the end 
of iVpril, and is not much seen until the summer months are 
* View of the Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 230. 
