Lot Essay
The adult male is depicted in the foreground, and in the background a female seizes a sparrow from an ivy-clad wall of a garden.
Gould contrasted the hunting and flight of the Sparrowhawks and kestrels. Whereas the kestrel hovered over wide spaces, 'the round-winged dashing Sparrow-hawk' was more reclusive. It would sit in some leafy tree watching birds on which to prey, or wing its way over the fields and surprise a finch 'by overtopping the hedge and securing the terror-stricken bird in the quickness of lightning,' before it could shelter in the foliage. He added that female Sparrowhawks were larger and more formidable than the male birds.
DISTRIBUTION: Widely distributed from North Africa through Europe to the Pacific coast of Asia, including Japan and the Himalayas. Winters south to north and northeast Africa, south Asia, and Greater Sunda Island. In Britain recent severe decline has reversed with the imposition of restrictions on the use of organochlorine pesticides
Gould contrasted the hunting and flight of the Sparrowhawks and kestrels. Whereas the kestrel hovered over wide spaces, 'the round-winged dashing Sparrow-hawk' was more reclusive. It would sit in some leafy tree watching birds on which to prey, or wing its way over the fields and surprise a finch 'by overtopping the hedge and securing the terror-stricken bird in the quickness of lightning,' before it could shelter in the foliage. He added that female Sparrowhawks were larger and more formidable than the male birds.
DISTRIBUTION: Widely distributed from North Africa through Europe to the Pacific coast of Asia, including Japan and the Himalayas. Winters south to north and northeast Africa, south Asia, and Greater Sunda Island. In Britain recent severe decline has reversed with the imposition of restrictions on the use of organochlorine pesticides