Accipitres. BIRDS. Falcouid.*;. 
260 
tliat of the Harriers (Circus). The nest is built in the 
forked branch of a tree, and lined with moss and 
feathers ; it usually contains four or five eggs. 
THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE (Nauclerus furcatus) 
is a handsome bird, inhabiting the warmer regions of 
America, where, however, it seems to be a bird of 
passage. Two specimens have been taken in Britain, 
and hence it figures in our British Ornithologies as an 
occasional visitor. It may be at once distinguished by 
the great length of its very deeply-forked tail, which 
exactly resembles that of the swallow ; its wings also 
are extremely long and pointed, and the bird is evi- 
dently constructed with a view to great activity in the 
air. The head, neck, and the whole of the lower sur- 
face of the body are snow-white; the whole of the back, 
the wings, and the tail feathers are deep black, glossed 
with a metallic purple lustre — a contrast of colour 
which gives the bird an elegant appearance. In the 
air its movements are most graceful, and it spends most 
of its time on the wing, capturing the insects on which, 
like its analogues the swallows, it principally feeds. In 
fact nearly the whole business of its life goes on in that 
element, for which it is so pre-eminently fitted ; here 
the courtships take place between the newly -mated 
pairs, and here it devours all its prey, even carrying oft’ 
the lizards and small snakes, which constitute a portion 
of its food, to eat them while sailing through the air. 
The Swallow-tailed Kite breeds in the southern states 
of the American Union, building a nest of dry sticks 
and moss, lined with grass and feathers, in the highest 
branches of the tall oaks and pine trees. In this the 
female lays from four to six eggs of a greenish- white 
colour, upon which the parents sit alternately, feeding 
each other while thus engaged. 
HAWKS. 
THE SPAEROW-HAWK (Accipiter Nisus), one of the 
most abundant of our British hawks, is also found com- 
monly not only in most parts of Europe, but also in 
Asia, as far east as Japan, and in the northern parts of 
Africa. The male and female in this, as in most 
other species of the group of Hawks, differ greatly in 
size ; the former measuring only about twelve inches 
in length, whilst his partner is fifteen. The general 
colour of the plumage consists of different shades of 
brown, richer in the male than in the female ; in the 
former the lower surface of the body, from the chin to 
the tail coverts, is reddish, with many transverse bars 
of reddish brown ; in the female the same parts are 
greyish-white, with brown bars ; a somewhat similar 
diff'erence of colour prevails in the tail feathers of the 
two sexes. 
The Sparrow-hawk is exceedingly elegant in its 
form, and active in its habits, its long wings enabling it 
to fly with great rapidity, whilst its broad and powerful 
tail renders it capable of performing the most astonish- 
ing evolutions with ease. When hunting for its prey, 
it usually glides swiftly along at a height of only a few 
feet above the fields, occasionally passing up one side 
of a hedge and down the other, its bright eye always 
watching for an opportunity to dart upon its victim. 
It sometimes pursues birds upon the wing, but usually 
pounces down upon them when resting either on the 
ground or on the branch of a tree or bush, and its 
descent upon its quarry is performed with the most 
surprising celerity. Mr. M‘Gillivray mentions his hav- 
ing seen a Sparrow-hawk “rush headlong into the 
midst of a dense thicket, and suddenly emerge on the 
other side carrying oft’ a thrush in his talons and he 
adds, “How a bird at its utmost speed could thread 
its way between branches and twigs seems almost in- 
credible.” But the Sparrow-hawk does not always 
content himself with a diet of small birds and field- 
mice ; young rabbits, leverets, and partridges are often 
destroyed by him in the fields, and occasionally -he 
pays a visit to the habitations of man, and carries off 
chickens from the poultry-yard or pigeons from the 
do\-ecot with the utmost audacity. Even the presence 
of man does not at all interfere with the predatory 
plans of this daring little marauder ; he skims along at 
a little distance from the ground, snatches up his prey 
in an instant, sometimes almost from under people’s 
feet, and dashes off with it before an alarm can be 
given. When taken young the Sparrow-Hawk may 
be trained to hawking; he may be flown at partridges 
early in the season, and, according to Sir John Sebright, 
“ is the best of all the hawks for landrails.” In rearing 
the young, the sexes must be separated very early, 
otherwise the females, being larger and stronger, will 
kill and devour the males. 
The nest of the Sparrow-hawk is usually built in 
a tree, but in some of the Elebrides, where trees are 
wanting, the bird builds among the rocks. The nest is 
nearly flat, rudely composed of sticks and Uvigs, with a 
little grass, moss, or wool in the centre for the recep- 
tion of the eggs, which vary from three to flve in num- 
ber, and are of a bluish-white colour, with dark-brown 
blotches and spots. Very often this hawk does not 
take the trouble to build a nest, but seizes upon the 
deserted dwelling of some other bird, usually a crow. 
THE STREAKED SPARROW-HAWK (Accipiter vir- 
gatus) is an Indian species, which, although not common, 
is much used and highly prized by the native falconers. 
It is an inhabitant of the forests, and is employed for 
hawking in jungly districts, for which its habits specially 
adapt it. 
THE AMERICAN BROWN HAWK (Accipiter fuscits), 
which is found abundantly in many parts of the United 
States, especially those bordering the Atlantic, is an 
active and elegant bird, which seems in its boldness to 
represent our sparrow-hawk on the North American 
Continent. It is described by Wilson as dashing 
through the air with extraordinary velocity, often in a 
zig-zag course, as if for the purpose of seizing its prey 
by surprise. It feeds upon small birds, quadrupeds, 
and lizards ; and as an example of its activity in pur- 
suit of prey, Wilson mentions his having shot a speci- 
men which had in its talons a small lizard, whose 
lightning-like rapidity of movement is so remarkable as 
to have obtained for it the name of the Swift. 
