It is time, and high time, that sparrow-hawks were placed under the
protecting wing of the law. Generations of gamekeepers have persecuted
them relentlessly: it says much for their courage, strength, and
craftiness that any should remain to offer a target for the keeper's
gun. But they grow scarce; they are seen far less commonly than
kestrels, whose usefulness and innocence of gamecide is beginning to
be a little understood. If sportsmen would consider the evidence for
and against sparrow-hawks as despoilers of game--if they would rely
no longer on prejudice and crass ignorance--we feel sure they would
take steps to stay the wanton slaughter by their gamekeepers of these
handsome, useful birds. Keepers ought to be forbidden to destroy any
sparrow-hawks, except those which clearly prove themselves guilty of
killing game as a habit. How thoughtless, ruthless, and mistaken is the
keeper's zeal in killing them, we could show by a hundred instances.
To take one: It chanced that part of a patch of buckwheat had been
left unharvested, so that the pheasants might help themselves to the
grain. Thousands of small birds flocked to feed on the choice feast. A
gamekeeper noticed that sparrow-hawks found this patch of buckwheat a
fine hunting-ground, and would perch in a clump of tall trees near by.
He therefore hid himself in the trees, with a gun, and bagged four hen
sparrow-hawks, which had been well employed in thinning the ranks of
the small birds.
Countrymen will speak of the cock sparrow-hawk as the little blue
hawk, as though it were a separate variety: not knowing that the
cock bird is about half the size of his mate. Blue hawks, pigeon
hawks, and five-barred hawks are among the sparrow-hawk's local
names, arising from the blue-grey colour of the upper parts of their
plumage, from their occasional habit of attacking wood-pigeons, and
from the five striking bars of brownish black on their tails. Less
common than kestrels, sparrow-hawks are far less conspicuous: while
the kestrel hovers high in the air on the look-out for prey (whether
a mouse or a grasshopper), the sparrow-hawk's way is to glide low
over the fields and along the hedges, swooping suddenly through gaps
to pounce on unsuspecting small birds. The size and shape of the
wings, and therefore the flights of the two birds, are very different.
The sparrow-hawk's wings are inclined to be rounded and short; the
kestrel's are long and pointed. While the young of the two birds have a
great deal in common, the fledged young may be distinguished readily
by the white spot on the lower part of the back of the sparrow-hawk's
head. Each bird has a fatal way of coming to investigate the sound of a
gunshot. If a shot is fired in the direction of a hawk flying far out
of range, say a hundred yards distant, it will instantly dart down and
towards the gunner, nearly always within easy range. We have seen this
happen many times.
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