Birds, Vol. III, No 3, March 1898

<h2><SPAN name="THE_AMERICAN_SPARROW_HAWK" id="THE_AMERICAN_SPARROW_HAWK"></SPAN> THE AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK.</h2> <div> <ANTIMG class="drop-cap" src="images/initial_e.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="80" alt="" /></div> <p class="drop-cap">EVERY boy who has been in the fields is familiar with this beautiful little Hawk, which is numerous everywhere in North America. As Davie felicitously says: "Here it may be seen hovering almost motionless in mid air, then suddenly swooping down to the ground, arises again with perhaps a field-mouse in its talons." From this habit it receives the name of Mouse Hawk, although it also preys upon Sparrows and other small birds. It is found almost everywhere, though most abundant along streams where grow the high sycamores, whose natural cavities furnish suitable nesting places, but meadows and fields are its retreats when in search of food. It builds no nest, but deposits its eggs in the natural cavities of high trees, often in the deserted holes of Woodpeckers, or in crevices in rocks or nooks about buildings. In the West it frequently appropriates a deserted Magpie's nest. Eggs of this Hawk were taken from a crevice in a stone quarry in the Scioto river, where the birds nested for years. The Sparrow Hawk often takes possession of boxes intended for Pigeons, and it always proves to be a peaceable neighbor. The nests generally contain no lining, but in some cases a slight bed of leaves or grasses on a few chips are used. The eggs are four to six, buffy white, speckled, spotted, and blotched with light and dark brown.</p> <p>This Hawk is not as active or destructive as others of the Falcon tribe. Its flight is usually short and irregular, darting here and there, often hovering in a suspended manner for several moments at a time. During the summer months, it occasionally kills small birds, but feeds chiefly upon mice, lizards, grasshoppers, crickets, and the like, as they are so much easier to capture than full grown birds, and to which they rarely turn their attention, until the cold weather drives the other forms of life, upon which they so largely feed, into their winter beds. The bird that suffers most outside of the Horned Larks and Longspurs, is the Tree Sparrow, as it prefers the hedges and small thickets upon the prairies, instead of the wooded lands, for its sheltered home; its food in all such cases being upon the open lands, and whenever there is snow upon the ground it drifts against the hedges and forces the little birds to seek the bare spots, quite a distance away, for the seeds on or fallen from the weeds. Here it is that the Hawk, says Goss, successfully performs its work, by darting from a perch and striking the Sparrow, either upon the ground or before it can reach its hiding place.</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The woods are full of voices everywhere;</div> <div class="verse">An hundred chipmunks' sharp, quick tones are there;</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">The cricket's chirp, the partridge drum,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">The harsh-voiced crows which go and come,</div> <div class="verse indent0_5">In Nature's song agree.</div> <div class="verse indent-0_5">The breeze that wanders through the firs,</div> <div class="verse indent-0_5">The rustle of each leaf that stirs,</div> <div class="verse indent0_5">Are whisperings to me.</div> <div class="verse">So, when swift impulse leads in ways unknown,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">I follow on without a thought of fear;</div> <div class="verse">God reigns, and I can never be alone,</div> <div class="verse indent0_5">With Nature near.</div> <div class="verse ar">&mdash;<span class="sc">Tom Carder, Jr.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</SPAN></span></p> <table class="sp2 mc w50" title="AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK." summary="AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK."> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="3"><span class="ac w100 figcenter"> <SPAN name="i_045.jpg" id="i_045.jpg"> <ANTIMG style="width:100%" src="images/i_045.jpg" width="452" height="600" alt="" /></SPAN></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">From col. F. M. Woodruff.</td> <td class="x-smaller ac w40">AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK.<br/> &#8532; Life-size.</td> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">Copyright by<br/> Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <hr class="small" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</SPAN></span></p> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />