152 
SPARROW-HAWK. 
tion. In the open country the progress is a flitting 
or gliding flight, skimming at a short distance 
from the ground, along the back of hedges or the 
skirts of some cover ; any obstruction on the 
way, or fence, is passed as it were by a bound, 
calculated with exactness, the action performed 
with apparently no exertion,] and the former 
level course on the other side is again pursued ; 
the prey is seized in the same rapid and easy 
manner, and the stoop to the ground is made, 
and the object seized almost without the spectator 
being able to distinguish it. During the course, 
some stone, stake, or eminence is often selected 
for a temporary rest ; the station is taken up with 
the utmost lightness, the wings closed with a pecu- 
liar quiver of the tail, and the attitude assumed 
very nearly perpendicular, when it often remains 
a few minutes motionless ; the flight is again 
resumed with as little preparatory movement as 
it was suspended. The prey of the male Sparrow- 
hawk is smaller birds, his weight not permitting 
him to carry off a heavy quarry ; but the female is 
a very powerful bird, and we have here (and in the 
group generally) a very marked example of dis- 
parity between the size and weight of the sexes. 
The female can easily kill a partridge or pigeon, 
and we have seen her carry the latter for the 
distance of one hundred and fifty yards ; Mr 
Selby mentions a lapwing being among the 
