166 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

portion of white. She generally builds in hollow trees,
lofty rocks, and ruins, laying four or five white eggs,
spotted with red at the thicker end. In the ‘ Natural His-
tory of Selborne’ it is mentioned that a pair of these birds
had brought up their brood in an old crow’s nest on a low
beech in Selborne hanger, and were a terror to all the dames
in the village who bad chickens or ducklings under their
care.

On the approach of winter the northern sparrow-hawks
migrate southward, preying on the smaller migratory birds
with great ferocity, whence the seamen in the Mediter-
ranean give them the name of “corsairs.” They remain
stationary in Egypt, and the young ones are said to be used
there as food.

The hawk is again mentioned in Job xxxix., and its mi-
gratory habits alluded to: “Doth the hawk fly by thy wis-
dom, and stretch her wings toward the south ?”

Fatco mitvus.—The Kite.

This bird is easily distinguished from the rest of the
hawk kind by its forked tail. Its length is about two feet,
its breadth five; the bill very much curved at the end; the
feathers on the neck are long, of a grey colour, streaked
with brown; the remainder of the plumage is brown, with