Identifier: birdlifeguidetos00chapman (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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d eaten chickens. The Marsh Hawk is migratory, and in winter is notoften found north of southern Connecticut. He nestslater than the resident Hawks, and, unlike them, luiildshis nest of grasses on the ground in the marshes, layingfrom four to six dull white or bluish white eggs earlyin May. The Sparrow Hawk has a perfectly clean record,as far as chickens go, not one of the 320 whose stomachs c^ov.„™ wo^v were examined bv Dr. Fisher, havingSparrow Hawk, «- F„irn .^iHirr.rhi.i. partakcu of poultry, while no less thanPlate XVI. 215 had eaten bisects, and 89 had cap- tured mice. Grasshoppers are the Sparrow Hawks chieffood, and we may often see him hovering over the fieldswith rapidly moving wings. Then, dropping lightly downon some unsuspected victim below, he returns to the barelimb or stub he uses for a lookout station, uttering anexultant lilly—IvUly—Illly as he-flies. The Sparrow is distributed throughout the greaterpart of liortli America, but in winter is not found north
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Plate XVI. SPARKUW HAWK.Length, 1100 inches. Male, back reddish brown and black, wing-covertsslaty blue, tail reddish brown marked with black and white ; under partswashed with rusty and spotted with black. Female, back, wings, and tailbarred with reddish brown and black ; under parts white, streaked with red-dish brown. 131 122 HAWKS. of southern New York. It migrates nortliward in Feb-ruary and March, bnt does not nest until May. UnHkeour other Hawks, it chooses a hollow tree for a home,often taking possession of a Woodpeckers deserted hole.It lays three to seven eggs, which are finely and evenlymarked with reddish brown. It is the Sharp-shinned and Coopers Hawks who are the real culprits in Ilawkdom. They feed almost exclu- Sharp-shinned Hawk, ^i^ely on birds, and, having once ac- Arripit.r r.inx. quired a taste for tender young broilers, Plate XVII. they are apt to make daily visits to thehen yards. They are less often observed than the Hawkspreviously mentioned, seeking less expo

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