SHARP-SHINNED OR SLATE-COLOURED HAWK. 
103 
supplied with the smaller birds, on which it principally feeds. Again, after 
having satisfied its hunger, this little warrior at times’rises to a great height, 
and indeed now and then is scarcely discernible from the ground. 
I found a nest of this Hawk in a hole of the well-known “ Rock-in-cave” • 
on the Ohio river, in the early part of the spring of 1819. It was simply 
constructed, having been formed of a few sticks and some grasses carelessly 
interwoven, and placed about two feet from the entrance of the hole. I had 
the good fortune to secure the female bird, while she was sitting on her 
eggs, which were nearly hatched, and it was from that individual that I made 
the figure in the plate. The eggs, four in number, were almost equally 
rounded at both ends, though somewhat elongated, and their ground colour 
was white, with a livid tinge, scarcely discernible however amid the nume- 
rous markings and blotches of reddish-chocolate with which they were irre- 
gularly covered. The second opportunity which I had of seeing a nest of 
this species, occurred not far from Louisville in Kentucky, when I accidental- 
ly observed one of these Hawks dive into the hollow prong of a broken 
branch of a sycamore overhanging the waters of the Ohio. Here the eggs 
were five in number, and deposited on the mouldering fragments of the 
decayed wood. The third and last opportunity happened when I was on 
my way from Henderson to St. Genevieve, on horseback. I saw a pair of 
these birds forming a nest in the forks of a low oak, in a grove in the centre 
of the prairie which I was then crossing.' The young in the nest I have 
never seen. 
This interesting species usually resorts to the fissures of rocks for the 
pui’pose of there passing the hours of repose, and generally in places by no 
means easy of access, such as precipitous declivities overhanging some turbu- 
lent stream. It is often not until the darkness has so much gained on the 
daylight as to render objects difficult to be distinguished, that it betakes it- 
self to its place of rest, and then I have only been assured of its arrival by 
the few cries which it utters on such occasions. The earliness of its depar- 
ture has often much puzzled me, for with all my anxiety to witness it, I have 
never succeeded in doing so, although on two or three occasions I ' have 
watched the spot more than half an hour before dawn, aud remained patient- 
ly waiting until long after the sun had risen, when I clambered to the 
hole, and always found it empty. 
The food of this Hawk consists chiefly of birds of various sizes, from the 
smallest of our warblers to the Passenger Pigeon or young chickens, the 
latter appearing to afford a special temptation to it, as has been above related. 
I am also aware that it feeds occasionally on small reptiles and insects, and I 
shot the male represented in the plate, on wing, whilst it held in its claws 
the small Shrew also represented. It is extremely expert at seizing some of 
