486 
SPARROW HAWK. 
nestling under the eaves, where they dig out the mortar with their 
strong bills, when they do not find holes large enough for their accom- 
modation. It probably never struck those wise persons, that by thus 
encouraging the Sparrows to breed, they are promoting the increase of 
the race, and unless they multiply their Sparrow pots yearly, they may 
be almost certain that the supernumeraries will resort to eaves nearest 
their birth-place. In Holland, square boxes are placed on the house- 
tops, to entice the stork (Ardea ciconia) to build ; and for the same 
purpose it was customary in France, in Belon’s time, to place wheels 
there, a practice said to be still followed in some parts of Germany.** 
The Sparrow lays six eggs of a whitish colour, spotted with dusky- 
brown or ash-grey, and varying much in the shades as well as the 
thickness of the spots; each weighs from forty-three to forty-eight 
grains. Accidental varieties occur, such as white, black, and yellowish. 
SPARROW HAWK (Accipiter fringUlarius, Ray.) 
* Falco Nisus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 131. 31. — Fauna. Suec. No. 69. — Gmel. Syst. l.p. 
280. 31 Lath, Ind. Orn. 1. p. 44. 107. — Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 25. 
— Muller, No. 71. — Buteo Nisus, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 55. — Accipiter Fringil- 
larius, Rail, Syn. p. 18. A. 2 Will. p. 51. t. 5. — Vigors, Zool. Jour. 1. p. 327. 
L’Epervier, Luff- Ois. 1. p. 225. — Ib. pi. Enl. 467. and 412. — Temm. Man. 
d’Orn. 1. p. 56. 2. — Die Sperber, Bec/ist. Tasschenb. Deut. 1, p. 29. — Sparrow 
Hawk, Br. Zool. 1. No. 62. — Ib. fol. t. A. 10. A. 11.-— Arct. Zool. 2. p. 226. 
N. — Lath. Syn. 1. p. 99. 85. — Ib. Supp. p. 26. — Lewin's Br. Birds, 1. t. 20.- — 
Haye’s Br. Birds, t. 3 — Will. (Angl.) p. 86. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Bewick’s Br. 
Birds. 1. p, 27. — Shaw’s Zool. 7. p, 187. — Low’s Fauna. Oread, p. 38. — Pult. 
Cat. Dorset. — Selby, pi. 13. and 13. p. 33. * 
The weight of the male of this species, is about five ounces ; that of 
the female, nine ; the former measures, in length, about twelve inches ; 
the latter, fifteen ; the bill is bluish, dusky at the point ; cere yellow ; 
irides bright orange yellow. In some of both sexes the plumage of the 
upper parts are of a deep bluish grey ; in others brown, edged with 
ferruginous ; the under parts of the female are more fully marked with 
minute undulated lines of deep brown; the male is inclined to rust- 
colour on the breast, which in the other is whitish ; on the back of the 
head, in both sexes, is an obscure broken patch of white ; quill feathers 
dusky, barred with black on the outer webs, and spotted with white at 
the base of the inner ; the tail like the back, with broad bars of dusky 
black, the extreme point whitish ; legs long, slender, and yellow. 
This is a very common species in most of the wooded or enclosed 
parts of the kingdom, but less frequent in the more champaign parts. 
It seldom makes a nest, but generally takes possession of that which 
* Montbeillard, Oiseaux, La Cicogne blanche. 
