Volume 20, Plate IX / Ornithology (Birds)

Sparrow-Hawk

Accipiter fringillarius

Next to the Kestrel the most abundant British raptor, the Sparrow-hawk inhabits woodland and cultivated country, gliding swiftly among trunks and skimming hedges with an effortless bounding flight. The lighter male takes small birds while the powerful female can carry off a partridge or pigeon; it breeds in trees on a loose stick fabric, laying three to five bluish white eggs blotched with brown, the male about twelve inches and pale blackish grey above.