THE GOSHAWK. 



Tlii.s bird was called by the older writers the falcon gentle, and was reputed in tlie 

 days of falconry to have been one of the most courageous of birds, flying, as it did, at 

 the largest game. It is a larger bird than even the gyr-falcon, but it is shorter in the 

 ■\nngs, and altogether less compact and powerful, while it is not nearly so elegant as 

 the peregi'ine. 



In the fall-gi-own female, the general colour of the whole upper parts, the ear-coverts, 

 and a streak continued thence to the shoulder is lilackish brown, the back mottled, the 

 edges of the ear-coverts relieved, and the quills and tail-feathers margined with Hght 

 tints of reddish brown. The colours, though not showy, are weO contrasted. The naked 

 parts are yellow, the ii-ides grey, and the eye very quick and penetrating. 



The male is not above two-thirds of the length of the female, is not nearly so well- 

 shouldered or winged, and altogether is a very inferior bird. It has the top of the head 

 and neck much hghter, and a reddish tinge over the greater part of the body. The 

 spots on the imder parts are much fewer, much paler, and generally of an oval shape. 



The favoui'ite dwellings of the goshawk are the extensive wooded dells of the moun- 

 tains, or the wild clifls on the sea-shore, where it can nestle undisturbed, and yet be 

 within reach of places aboimding with the large birds and small (juadrupeds on wliich it 

 feeds. But it is one of the birds that pass away before the f)rogress of ci\ilisatiou ; 

 hence it never builds and is rarely ever seen in the Lowlands of Scotland, and still more 

 rarely m England. In inland places it builds m the forests, and is generally found near 

 these, because large bii-ds are more abundant there than in the open wastes. 



Where the goshawk abounds, it is very destructive to mountain game, especially when 

 it kills the old birds and the broods perish. This bird is docile, and not difiicult to train. 

 On that account it was called a " gentil " falcon, at least in some of its plumages, through 

 several tints of wliich the goshawks pass. Sometimes indeed they are, especially the 

 males, nearly wliite, and at other times the same sex is tawny, with few markings. 



The goshawk is not so prohfic as the smaller falcons and hawks, the eggs seldom 

 exceeding four. The young are of a much more red or dusty colom', especially on the 

 under parts, than the mature birds. 



In Syiia there is a small variety of the gentU falcon which the inhabitants denominate 

 Shaheen, and which is of so fierce and courageous a disposition that it wU attack any 

 bird, however large or powerful, which presents itself. " Were there not," says Dr. 

 Russel, in his account of Aleppo, " several gentlemen now in England to bear witness 

 to the fact, I should hardly venture to assert that, with this bird, which is about the size 

 of a pigeon, the inhabitants sometimes take large eagles. The hawk, in foi-mer times, 

 was taught to seize the eagle under the pinion, and thus depiiving him of the use of 

 one wing both birds fell to the ground together ; but I am informed the present mode is 



* Astiu- Palumbarius.^ — Bech. 



