. The royal natural history. istles, while it resemblesa smaller number of genera in the absence of reticulated scales on the back of themetatarsus. Sparrow-hawks may be distinguished from all their allies by thegreat length of the third toe, which (exclusive of the claw) is more than doublethe length of the ridge of the beak, measured from the front edge of the short beak curves regularly from the base, and has a distinct festoon in theupper cutting-edge, while the nostrils are oval. The wings are short, not reaching 238 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. within a long distance of the end of the
. The royal natural history. istles, while it resemblesa smaller number of genera in the absence of reticulated scales on the back of themetatarsus. Sparrow-hawks may be distinguished from all their allies by thegreat length of the third toe, which (exclusive of the claw) is more than doublethe length of the ridge of the beak, measured from the front edge of the short beak curves regularly from the base, and has a distinct festoon in theupper cutting-edge, while the nostrils are oval. The wings are short, not reaching 238 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. within a long distance of the end of the tail, and have the fourth and fifth quillsnearly equal and longer than the others. The long metatarsus is smooth, beingcovered with greave-like plates, and the toes are long and slender, with sharp,curved claws. There are more than twenty species of sparrow-hawks, which aredistributed over the whole globe, with the exception of Oceania, the west ofAustralia, and New Guinea. A few are rather larger than the European species,. SPARROW-HAWK {\ iiat. size) while many are considerably smaller. The common sparrow-hawk {Accrjiiier nisus)is still an abundant bird in the wooded districts of England, and the female is theonly Accipitrine which inflicts much damage upon game-preserves. It belongs toa group of the genus characterised by the banded thighs, the absence of a collarround the neck, and the number of bars on the tail not exceeding five. In theadult male the plumage of the upper-parts, with the exception of a white spot onthe nape of the neck, is dark bluish grey, while the cheeks, chin, and under-partsare rufous, barred with bands of dark rufous brown, narrower than the intervening SFARRO W-HA WKS. 239 light spaces; the tail being greyish brown, with from three to live dark beak is blue, and the iris orange; the legs and toes are yellow, and tlie clawsblack. The total length is about 13 inches. The female is some 2i inches longerthan the male, and differs by the gener
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