May 24, 1792
The old speckled Bantam sits on eight eggs. Sorbus aucuparia, the Quickent-tree, or mountain-ash full of bloom. The bunches of red berries would make a fine appearance in winter: but they are devoured by thrushes, as soon as they turn colour. Tanner shot a hen Sparrow-hawk as she was sitting on her eggs in an old crow’s nest on one of the beeches in the High wood. The bird fell to the ground, &, what was very strange, brought down with her one of the eggs unbroken. The eggs of Sparrow-hawks, like those of other birds of prey, are round, & blunt-ended, & marked at one end with a bloody blotch. The hen bird of this species is a fine large hawk; the male is much smaller, & more slender. Hawks seldom build any nest. This Hawk had in her craw the limbs of an unfledged lark.