ˈsparrow-hawk
Also 5 sparowhawke (6 -hauke).
[f. sparrow: cf. sparhawk. So Sw. sparfhök, Norw. dial. sporvehauk.]
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.
| 14.. Metr. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 625 Nisus, sparowhawke. c 1450 Mirk's Festial 43 A byrd þat couthe speke..went out of his cage, and a sparow-hawke wold haue slayne hym. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 58 b, The Normans fled as fast as..the sely Partridge before the Sparowhauke. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster ii. i, Use exercise, and keep a Sparrow-hawk. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xvi. 322 An Embassadour should not as a sparrow-hawk flie outright to his prey. 1752 J. Hill Hist. Anim. v. 341 The Sparrow hawk. The yellow-legged Falco, with a white, undulated breast, and a fasciated brown tail. 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. 1843 Yarrell Brit. Birds I. 63 The Sparrow-Hawk is another short-winged Hawk. 1870 Gillmore tr. Figuier's Reptiles & Birds 590 The Sparrow-hawks are distinguished from the preceding birds by the slenderness of their tarsi. 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. |
| fig. 1820 Scott Monast. xxxv, Thou art a bold sparrow-hawk, to match thee so early with such a kite as Piercie Shafton. 1859 Tennyson Marr. Geraint 444 The second was your foe, the sparrow-hawk, My curse, my nephew. |
b. With distinguishing epithets.
| 1787 Latham Syn. Birds Suppl. II. 51 Falco Nisus,..New Holland Sparrow-Hawk. Ibid., Speckled Sparrow-Hawk. 1807 Shaw Gen. Zool. VII. i. 190 Great-Billed Sparrow-Hawk. Falco magnirostris. 1810 A. Wilson Amer. Ornith. II. 117 American Sparrow Hawk, Falco sparverius. 1870 Gillmore tr. Figuier's Reptiles & Birds (1892) 591 Africa possesses..the Dwarf Sparrow-hawk (Accipiter minullus). |
2. A small anvil used in silver-working.
| 1869 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 309 The sparrow-hawk, which is a kind of miniature anvil. 1877 G. Gee Silversm. Hdbk. 119 The bezil all the time gradually working round the pointed end of the sparrow-hawk. |