Also 5 sparowhawke (6 -hauke). [f. SPARROW: cf. SPARHAWK. So Sw. sparfhök, Norw. dial. sporvehauk.]

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  1.  A species of hawk (Accipiter nisus) which preys on small birds, common in the British Islands and widely distributed in northern Europe and Asia. Occas., one or other species of hawk resembling this.

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14[?].  Metr. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 625. Nisus, sparowhawke.

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c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 43. A bryd þat couthe speke … went out of his cage, and a sparow-hawke wold haue slayne hym.

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a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 58 b. The Normans fled as fast as … the sely Partridge before the Sparowhauke.

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1611.  Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, II. i. Use exercise, and keep a Sparrow-hawk.

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1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xvi. 322. An Embassadour should not as a sparrow-hawk flie outright to his prey.

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1752.  J. Hill, Hist. Anim., V. 341. The Sparrow hawk. The yellow-legged Falco, with a white, undulated breast, and a fasciated brown tail.

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1768.  Pennant, Brit. Zool., I. 151. The difference between the size of the male and female sparrow hawks is more disproportionate than in most other birds of prey.

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1843.  Yarrell, Brit. Birds, I. 63. The Sparrow-Hawk is another short-winged Hawk.

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1870.  Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds, 590. The Sparrow-hawks are distinguished from the preceding birds by the slenderness of their tarsi.

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1880.  A. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., XI. 534/2. The so-called ‘Sparrow-Hawk’ of New Zealand (Hieracidea) does not belong to this group of birds at all.

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  fig.  1820.  Scott, Monast., xxxv. Thou art a bold sparrow-hawk, to match thee so early with such a kite as Piercie Shafton.

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1859.  Tennyson, Marr. Geraint, 444. The second was your foe, the sparrow-hawk, My curse, my nephew.

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  b.  With distinguishing epithets.

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1787.  Latham, Syn. Birds, Suppl. II. 51. Falco Nisus,… New Holland Sparrow Hawk. Ibid. Speckled Sparrow-Hawk.

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1807.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., VII. I. 190. Great-Billed Sparrow-Hawk. Falco magnirostris.

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1810.  A. Wilson, Amer. Ornith., II. 117. American Sparrow Hawk, Falco sparverius.

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1870.  Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds (1892), 591. Africa possesses … the Dwarf Sparrow-hawk (Accipiter minullus).

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  2.  A small anvil used in silver-working.

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1869.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 309. The sparrow-hawk, which is a kind of miniature anvil.

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1877.  G. Gee, Silversm. Hdbk., 119. The bezil all the time gradually working round the pointed end of the sparrow-hawk.

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