72 
Sparrow-Hawk (Pages 44-48). — This bold raptorial bird is 
resident with us during the year, and, despite the most persistent 
persecution of the species by the gamekeeper over the length and 
breadth of the land, still manages to maintain itself in considerable 
numbers The female is, as throughout the raptorial family, con- 
siderably larger than the male, and it is unfortunately unquestionable 
that she destroys, especially at the breeding season, numbers of the 
young of the game birds near whose haunts she invariably nests, 
’rhe site selected by the Sparrow-Hawk for nesting purposes, is 
frequently a corner of a wood or on the edge of a glade inside a 
wood, and so suitable a position does this site appear to be that pair 
after pair of Sparrow-Hawks may be shot from the nest only to be 
replaced each succeeding year by another couple. The male is blue 
black above, the breast white suffused with brown, barred with a 
darker shade of brown, while his mate is rather lighter in colour, 
the breast white barred with ashy-grey. The legs of both are yellow, 
with toes greatly developed, giving great grasping power, and ending 
in needle-pointed talons. The eggs, five or six in number, are of 
bluish-white ground colour, richly blotched and marked with 
reddish-brown. 
Another photograph of nest and eggs of the Sparrow-Hawk will 
be found on Page 23 of the First Series , and of young and adult on 
Pages 31 and 32 of the Third Series of IVild Birds at Home. 
See also Page t6o of Nature Pictures (Gowans & Gray, Ltd., 7/6 
net). 
Whitethroat (Frontispiece). — The Whitethroat is a summer 
migrant, reaching Britain tn April, is extremely numerous and vary 
widely distributed, and rejoices in a bewildering variety of local 
names, such as “ Chairhe Gabbie,” “Whisky Tam," “Nettle 
Creeper,” etc. The song of the Whitethroat consists of a medley, 
and gives the hearer the impression that the bird is very fussy, and 
it is uttered in a hurried querulous twittering fashion, almost as 
though in an^er. It is while uttering its song that the distinctive 
feature to which it owes its name becomes most visible, its head being 
raised and the pale coloured feathers of the throat distended. The 
Whitethroat is about five and a half inches long, is greyish brown 
above, the head ashy-grey, while the under surface of the body is 
white with the breast faintly washed with vinous colour. This 
species is insectivorous in habit, and is especially fond of the 
“ Daddy Long Legs," but in the autumn months feeds on currants 
and berries. Favourite haunts of the Whitethroat are the tangled 
f latches of brambles on the margins of the woodland, old country 
anes, and overgrown hedgerows, where, in the tangled half-open 
growth of bramble and briar, its deep but slender nest may by 
careful search be discovered. It is built of dry grass, and lined with 
horse hair, is frequently placed amid the brambles, sometimes amidst 
nettle stems and contains four to six eggs greenish-yellow in ground 
colour, thickly spotted with faint marks of violet-grey. 
This photograph of the nest and eggs of the Whitethroat com- 
pletes the series of this bird, as pictures of the young and adult will 
be found on Pages 13 14 of IVild Birds at Home, Second Series. 
Sea also Page 131 of Nature Pictures (Gowans & Gray, Ltd., 7/6 
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