168 Birds of Colorado 



sometimes blotched and spotted with buffy or bro\\ii. 

 They average 1*80 x 1*40. The male assists the female 

 in the construction of the nest, the incubation of the 

 eggs and the rearing of the young. According to Gale, 

 fresh eggs should be looked for near Gold Hill from 

 May 25th to June 10th, but the notices of the breeding 

 of the Marsh -Hawk in Colorado are very scanty. 



Genus ACCIPITER. 



Bill moderate or rather small, edge of the upper mandible slightly 

 festooned ; nostrils rounded ; wing rather short, the five outer primaries 

 emarginate on the inner web, the sixth and seventh the longest ; tail 

 long, about f of wing, slightly rounded ; legs long, tarsus feathered 

 about ^, rather slender, with scutes in front and behind, often 

 fusing to one long " boot " ; middle toe very long, without claw, clearly 

 exceeding the outer toe with claw. 



A large, almost cosmopolitan genus of some thirty species ; only 

 two occur in the United States. 



IVEY OF THE SPECIES. 



A. Smaller ; wing 6 to 8-5 ; tail even. A. velox, p. 168. 



B. Larger; wing 9 to 11; tail rounded. A. cooperi, p. 170. 



Sharp-shinned Hawk. Accipiter velox. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 332— Colorado Kecords— Ridgway 73, p. 186 

 {Nisus fuscua) ; Drew 81, p. 141 ; 85, p. 17 ; Allen & Brewster S3, 

 p. 197 ; Morrison 87, p. 27 ; 88, p. 115 ; 89, p. 7 ; Lowe 94, p. 267 ; 

 Cooke 97, pp. 74, 204 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 ; 09, p. 229 ; Warren 06, 

 p. 10 ; 09, p. 14 ; Oilman 07, p. 154 ; RockweU OS, p. 161 ; Hersey & 

 Rockwell 09, p. 116. 



Description. — Male — Above dark slaty -blue, dusky on the quills, the 

 tail with four cross-bands of dusky and a narrow terminal edging of 

 whitish ; nape-feathers and scapulars with concealed white bases ; 

 below white, the middle parts mottled in irregular cross-bars with pale 

 tawny ; quills strongly banded below with black and white ; tail square ; 

 iris yellow, bill bluish-horn, cere greenish, legs yellow. Length 12-0 ; 

 wing 7-3 ; tail 5-75 ; culmen -6 ; tarsus l-S. 



The female resembles the male but is larger ; length 13-5 ; wing 

 8'5. A young bird is dusky brown above with ta%vny edges to most 

 of the feathers, and the white of the head and scapulars often showing 

 through ; below white, with longitudinal stripes of brown and darker 

 brown shaft-marks. 



