Like the kestrel, the sparrow-hawk is content with a slovenly nest,
which it builds of dead twigs on the ruins of other nests--usually
those of magpies, crows, or pigeons. Or it uses a squirrel's drey as
a foundation, or comes year after year to its own old home. Usually
the chosen site is not very high in a tree--larches and oaks are
favourites--and the nest will be found near the trunk: in short oaks it
may be in the cup formed where several branches spread away. We have
found a nest within ten feet of the ground. The nest, when you climb to
it, is much larger than it appears from below, and only a man with long
arms could encircle it. There may be five eggs, pale white, blotched
with dark chestnut-brown, the markings of eggs in one clutch sometimes
showing a beautiful variation, while the markings of the clutches of
different birds differ considerably. The shells, like those of the
kestrel's eggs, are very thick--even the hawk's sharp claws would
hardly puncture them without intentional effort.
Should you hear a soft whistling in a wood--not unlike the whistling
of the farmer's wife when she calls her chickens to meals, but much
subdued--you may know there is a sparrow-hawk's nest not far away.
A glimpse of the whistler gives rise to a general alarm-cry among
blackbirds. If the whistling leads to the discovery of young hawks,
on your approach they will assume attitudes suggestive of disgust and
resentment. In their poses and markings there is something owl-like
about young hawks: and, as with young owls, there is a good deal of
difference in the size of the fledglings, and in the state of their
feathering. The strongest young one has the pick of the food, and
quickly outgrows his brothers and sisters. Should the mother bird
be killed, the cock will rear the family unaided on the small birds
on which they thrive. The preservation of woods has meant a steady
increase in the hosts of small birds, and hawks in consequence are
under no necessity to prey on game-birds. Some sparrow-hawks will
acquire the game-feeding habit: others will pounce by chance on a small
game-bird; but sparrow-hawks are in no way dependent on game, living
for the most part on finches and the like, thereby helping to preserve
the balance of scales of which the gamekeeper and his master take
little heed.
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