92 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



the European bird of that name, is well known all over Missouri, 

 but is nowhere common at any time. It is seen oftenest in spring 

 and fall from March 10 to the first week in May and from early 

 in September to about the twentieth of November. Records for 

 December, January and February are few, l:)ut it is reported as 

 a rare winter visitant not only from the southern part of the 

 state, but even from the northwestern corner by Mr. E. S. 

 Currier, January 4, 1903, and February 9, 1897, and from the 

 western border December 30, 1902, by Mr. J. A. Bryant of 

 Kansas City. Reports of its breeding in Missouri are also rare; 

 they come from Montgomery City (Parker), Independence 

 (Tindall), and St. Louis County, where Mr. Philo W. Smith, Jr., 

 took a set of eggs in 1904 and saw the birds again in the summer 

 of 1905. Unlike most other hawks this species does not seem 

 to have suffered great losses in numbers. It has probably 

 never been much more numerous than it is now, for the reason 

 that it is not such an easy mark as the so-called chicken or hen- 

 hawks of our farmers and hunters. It does not sit around on 

 fence posts and c^uietly await the approach of the cruel gunner ; 

 it is always on the alert and so quick in its movements that it 

 is generally out of range before the beholder has recovered from 

 his astonishment. It is sometimes seen circling high in the air, 

 but its home is in the woods and its hunting is done low over 

 the ground, often at the edge of the forest, along fences and 

 hedges or the varied plant growth fringing our creeks and wet- 

 weather branches. Its strategy is surprise; it snatches the 

 frightened bird before it can reach the protecting thicket. 

 Living almost entirely on small birds and young poultry it is 

 decidedly harmful, but its recently acquired taste for the plump 

 and saucy English sparrow has been regarded as a redeeming 

 feature. An additional record of its breeding in the southern 

 part of the state is furnished by Mr. E. S. Woodruff, who took 

 on May 2, 1907, in Shannon Co., a female containing three 

 nearly developed eggs, proving they breed there. 



*333. AcciPiTER cooPERii (Bonap.). Cooper's Hawk. 



Falco cooperii. Astur cooperii. Falco stanleyi. Accipiter mcvicanu,^. 

 Blue Hawk (adult). 



Geog. Dist. — Breeds from Gulf of Mexico to the southern Brit- 

 ish provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. 

 Winters from about lat. 39° southward to southern Mexico. 



In Missouri the Cooper's Hawk may still be called a fairly 



