92 
THE AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWK. 
retreats to her winter quarters, dismal clouds obscure the eastern horizon, 
the sun assumes a sickly dimness, hoarfrosts cover the ground, and the long 
night encroaches on the domains of light. No longer are heard the feathered 
choristers of the woods, who throng towards more congenial climes, and in 
their rear rushes the Sparrow-Hawk. 
Its flight is rather irregular; nor can it be called protracted. It flies over 
a field, but seldom farther at a time ; even in barren lands, a few hundred 
yards are all the extent it chooses to go before it alights. During the love 
season alone it may be seen sailing for half an hour, which is, I believe, the 
longest time I ever saw one on the wing. When chasing a bird, it passes 
along with considerable celerity, but never attains the speed of the Sharp- 
shinned Hawk or other species. When teazing an Eagle or a Turkey- 
Buzzard, its strength seems to fail in a few minutes, and if itself chased by a 
stronger Hawk, it soon retires into some thicket for protection. Its migra- 
tions arc pursued by day, and with much apparent nonchalance. 
The cry of this bird so much resembles that of the European Kestrel, to 
which it seems allied, that, were it rather stronger in intonation, it might be 
mistaken for it. At times it emits its notes while perched, but principally 
when on the wing, and more continually before and after the birth of its 
young, the weaker cries of which it imitates when they have left the nest 
and follow their parents. 
The Sparrow-Hawk does not much regard the height of the place in 
which it deposits its eggs, provided it be otherwise suitable, but I never saw 
it construct a 'nest for itself. It prefers the hole of a Woodpecker, but now 
and then is satisfied with an abandoned Crow’s nest. So prolific is it, that 
I do not recollect having ever found fewer than five eggs or young in the 
nest, and, as I have already said, the number sometimes amounts to seven. 
The eggs are nearly globular, of a deep buff-colour, blotched all over with 
dark brown and black. This Hawk sometimes raises two broods in the 
season, in the Southern States, where in fact it may be said to be a constant 
resident ; but in the Middle and Eastern States, seldom if ever more than 
one. Nay, I have thought that in the South the eggs of a laying are more 
numerous than in the North, although of this I am not quite certain. 
So much attached are they to their stand, that they will return to it and 
sit there by preference for months in succession. My friend Bachman 
informed me that, through this circumstance, he has caught as many as seven 
in the same field, each from its favourite stump. 
Although the greater number of these Hawks remove southward at the 
approach of winter, some remain even in the State of New York during the 
severest weather of that season. These keep in the immediate neighbourhood 
of barns, where now and then they secure a rat or a mouse for their support. 
