American Sparrow Hawk 
223 
AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK 
Called also: Killy Hawk; Rusty-crowned Falcon; 
Mouse Hawk 
Just such an extended branch as a shrike or a 
kingbird would use as a lookout while searching 
the landscape o’er for something to eat, the 
little sparrow hawk chooses for the same purpose. 
He is not much larger than either of these birds, 
scarcely longer than a robin. Because he is a 
hawk, with the family possession of eyes that 
are both telescope and miscroscope, he can 
detect a mouse, sparrow, garter snake, spider 
or grasshopper, farther away than seems to us 
possible. 
Every farmer’s boy knows this beautiful 
little rusty-red hawk, with slaty-blue cap and 
wings, and creamy-buff spotted sides, if not by 
sight then by sound, as it calls kill-ee, kill-ee 
kill-ee, across the fields. It does not soar and 
revolve in a merry-go-rotmd on high like its 
cousins, but flies swiftly and gracefully, keeping 
near enough to the ground to see everything that 
creeps or hops through the grass. Dropping 
suddenly, like a stone, upon its victim (usually 
a grasshopper) it seizes it in its small, sharp, 
fatal talons and bears it away to a favourite 
perch, there to enjoy it at leisure. 
