96 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Se'ptember 



THE AMERICAN GOSHAWK NEAR OTTAWA, 



By G. Eifrig. 



The goshawk or blue henhawk {Accipiter atricapillus) 

 breeds in some numbers in the vast wooded area to the north 

 of Ottawa. It is a large hawk measuring two feet from bill to 

 end of tail, the wing expanse being three to four feet. It is a 

 beautifully marked hawk. The adults of both sexes are bluish- 

 slate color above, the under parts white, each feather being 

 pencilled with black, producing a fine effect. The young ones 

 are entirely different, brownish-black with some rufous above, 

 and the feathers below being heavily streaked with black, not 

 barred as the adults. Last fall they were quite common for 

 a while around the cit}^ Their flight is not the slow gliding of 

 the buzzard genus. They fly low and swift and fall on their prey 

 like thunderbolts, and when people come out of the house to 

 look for the miscreant who carried away their chicken, they may 

 happento see a red-shouldered hawk gliding around above, and, 

 taking him to be the author of the mischief, will vow vengeance, 

 whereas the real author, the goshawk, or perhaps Cooper's 

 hawk, who looks and acts much like him, is far away by this 

 time, enjoying his meal. The}^ are quite fearless, often carrying 

 away chickens or game from the very feet of the husbandman 

 or hunter. They would be real harmful to farmers and poultry- 

 men were they not so rare in settled districts. But for what 

 damage the quick-flying Accipiters do, the slow-gliding useful 

 buzzards, Buteo, are blamed and punished, as the red-shouldered, 

 red-tailed and broad-winged hawks. Of the accipitrine hawks, 

 which closely approach the falcons in build, rapacity and swift- 

 ness, we have only the goshawk, Cooper's and the sharp-shinned 

 hawk, of which only the last is at all common, and he is too 

 small to do much harm to man. He confines his depredations 

 to small wild birds, where he does much harm. In winter he 

 sometimes enters cities, as three winters ago Ottawa, and 

 makes himself useful to the community by doing away with an 

 enormous number of English sparrows. 



The following two incidents, which came under the writer's 

 notice, show the fierceness of the goshawk. About May 15th, 

 1905, Mr. F. Sack, a farmer of Germanicus, Renfrew Co., went 

 into one of his fields, which he had not visited for a while. 

 Suddenly a large hawk swooped down upon him, sailed around 

 him in uncomfortably close proximity to his head, struck at 

 him with his claws, and all this with such fierceness that 

 progress was impossible. He had to turn back. The next day 

 he wanted to finish his tour of inspection, when the same thing 



