THE SPARROW-HAWKS (Accipiter).
These may almost be called miniature Goshawks, as they are not only short-winged birds like the latter, but they even have the same style of plumage, consisting generally of a dark-grey back, a barred under surface, and a piercing yellow eye. They may, however, be distinguished from the Goshawks by their small, weak bill, and long, slender, middle toe. With the exception of some of the Oceanic Islands, Sparrow-Hawks are found all over the world, being plentiful even in South America, where the rarity of the Goshawks has already been alluded to.
THE COMMON SPARROW-HAWK (Accipiter nisus).
This is an active and plucky little bird, which still holds its own in England, notwithstanding the raids made upon its nest, and the destruction of old birds by keepers. Nor can it be denied that the Sparrow-Hawk, hatching its young about the time when the young chickens and Pheasants are also being reared, will occasionally make a swoop on the pheasantry, and carry off the chicks to feed its own offspring. The principal food of this Hawk is small birds, in the pursuit of which it is so eager that it has several times been known to dash through a glass window, and be caught in the room; while Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick, in their work on British Falconry, state that they have “known a trained Sparrow-Hawk force itself to such an extent into a blackthorn bush, where it had killed a bird, as to require to be cut out.” Like the Goshawk, it is often trained for hawking, but is a much more delicate bird to rear, and requires careful management when young. Nevertheless, a well-trained Sparrow-Hawk will account for a considerable number of birds; and in the work of the above-mentioned authors is given an instance of one Hawk having killed 327 head in less than two months, consisting of Sparrows, Blackbirds, Thrushes, a few Partridges, and Linnets, more than two-thirds of the number being Sparrows.
In size the female Sparrow-Hawk is considerably larger than the male, measuring nearly sixteen inches in length, and nine inches and a half in the wing. She is generally paler grey, never so blue as in the male, nor is she so red underneath. A sign of age, by which a mature hen Sparrow-Hawk may be known, is the presence of a tuft of rufous plumes on the flanks, which is feebly developed in the young bird, but is a conspicuous feature in the adult.
SPARROW-HAWK. (After Keulemans)
The male is bluish slate-colour above, the quills browner and barred across with darker brown, these bars being very distinct below; the tail is barred with blackish-brown, and tipped with white; cheeks and ear-coverts are rufous; under surface of body whitish, with narrow bars of bright rufous, the under tail-coverts white, as are also the under wing-coverts and axillaries, these two latter parts being spotted with brown. Young birds are brown with rufous edges to the feathers; underneath they are rufous, barred with brown on the flanks and breast, the throat and fore-neck streaked with the same colour. The bars on the tail are five in number in a young male, but as the bird increases in age the number of bars decreases, and is generally only four in a very old bird: the same takes place in the female. The range of the Common Sparrow-Hawk is very similar to that of the Goshawk, being extended all over Europe and Northern Asia, and into Northern China and North-western India. Neither of the birds go to South Africa, and range into the north-eastern portion of that continent only in winter.
THE THIRD SUB-FAMILY.—THE BUZZARDS (Buteoninæ).
These Hawks constitute a numerous assemblage of the birds of prey, and lead on from the long-legged Hawks of the previous sub-family to the Eagles, ending with the Great Harpy, which is, perhaps, the most powerful bird of prey in the world. All the Buzzards have the tibia much longer than the tarsus, but they may be distinguished from all the Eagles, Kites, and Falcons by having the back of the tarsus “plated,” and not “reticulated.” In the accompanying woodcuts is shown the hinder aspect of a Buzzard’s tarsus (figure on p. 274), by which it will be seen that the scales are arranged in plates, very differently from that which takes place in the tarsus of an Eagle (figure on p. 274), where the scales are reticulated.[178]