Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Hawk

HAWK, the Common, or Sparrowhawk, Falco Nisus, L. is a bold and spirited bird: it abounds in almost every part of Europe; and varieties of it are found dispersed over the whole earth.

The length of the male of these birds is twelve inches; that of the female fifteen; the former differs both in size and colour from the latter. The female builds her nest in hollow trees, high rocks, or lofty ruins, sometimes in the old nest of a crow, and generally lays four or five eggs, marked at the pointed end with reddish spots.

The Sparrowhawk is obedient and docile: by keeping him awake three or four days successively in a hoop, till he become almost delirious, he may afterwards be easily trained to hunt partridges and quails. In a wild state, however, these creatures commit great depredations on pigeons, poultry, rabbits, hares, &c. so that the following method of catching them will probably be acceptable to many readers.

A hawk-cage, made upon a plan similar to that of a goldfinch trap-cage, but larger, and baited with two house-sparrows, should be exposed in a fine clear morning, on a hedge, or some other open place, and left out till late in the evening. By this simple contrivance, those predatory birds might be easily taken; and either destroyed, or preserved for the purposes of hawking; an amusement that has lately been abandoned in this country, and therefore requires no description.