152 



FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 



His small size is so much more than compensated by his audacity 

 that one bird often becomes the terror of a poultry yard, taking the 

 small and half-grown chickens regularly and sometimes killing and 

 eating a full-grown hen of many times its own weight. 



VEKNON BAILEY. 



333. Accipiter cooperii (Bonap.). COOPER HAWK. 



Adult male. Under parts white, heavily spotted and barred with red- 

 dish brown; lop of head black contrasted with 

 bluish gray of back ; tail rounded, with 3 or 4 

 black bands and narrow white tip. Adult 

 female : upper parts duller and less bluish 

 than in male ; top of head more brown- 

 ish black ; hind neck and sides of head 

 washed with dull rusty. Young : upper 

 parts dark brown, with rusty edgings and 

 suggestion of white spotting ; under parts 

 streaked vertically. Male : length 14-17, 

 wing 8.85-9.40, tail 7.80-8.30. Female: 

 length 18-20, wing 10.10-11.00, tail 9.00- 

 10.50. 



Distribution. Breeds throughout the 

 United States and southern British Pro- 

 vinces, wintering regularly from about lati- 

 tude 40 southward to southern Mexico, 

 though occasionally staying in southern 

 Canada. 



Nest. In trees, 20 to 50 feet from the 

 ground, often a remodeled one of other 

 hawks, crows, or squirrels, bulky, made of 

 large sticks and lined with rough outer 

 bark. Eggs : usually 4 or 5, pale bluish 



white to greenish white, unspotted or faintly and irregularly scrawled 



with brown or pale buffy. 



Food. Almost entirely wild birds and poultry, but occasionally small 



mammals, reptiles, batrachians, and insects. 



"Cooper's hawk, which resembles the sharp-shinned hawk closely in 

 everything except size, is less northern in its distribution. . . . The 

 food of this hawk, like that of its smaller congener, consists almost 

 entirely of wild birds and poultry, though from its superior size and 

 strength it is able to cope successfully with much larger birds, and 

 hence is much more to be dreaded. . . . The flight of this species 

 is very rapid, irregular, and usually is carried at no great height 

 from the ground, in all these particulars closely resembling that of 

 the sharp -shinned hawk." (Fisher.) 



Subgenus Astur. 

 Length over 20 ; tarsus feathered for about one half its length. 



334. Accipiter atricapillus (inv.s.). AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 



Bare portion of leg in front shorter than middle toe ; wing more than 



From Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture. 



Fig. 223. 



