258 HISTORY OF THE 



up their bill of fare. Tliej often boldly enter the dooryard, 

 where I saw one of the birds strike a hen, while in defense of 

 her brood, with a force that killed her, and then grasp in its 

 claws a half-grown chicken and triumphantly carry it away. 



Their nests are placed in the forks of medium-sized trees, from 

 twenty-five to fifty feet from the ground; made of sticks and 

 twigs, and lined sparingly with grass and leaves. Eggs usually 

 four, 1.94x1.54; pale bluish white; occasionally eggs will show 

 faint blotches of lilac to yellowish brown, especially about the 

 larger end; in form, rounded oval. 



Subgenus ASTUR Lacepede. 

 "More than one-third (about one-half) of the upper portion of the tarsus 

 feathered in front, the feathering scarcely separated behind; frontal transverse 

 scutellse of the tarsus and toes interrupted in the region of the digito-tarsal 

 joint, where replaced by irregular small scales. Tarsal scutellse never fused." 



Accipiter atricapillus (Wils.). 



AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 

 PLATE XV. 



A rare winter visitant. 



B. 14. R. 433. C. 496. G. 203, 118. U. 334. 



Habitat. Northern and eastern North America; west to and 

 including the Rocky Mountains; breeding chiefly north of the 

 United States. 



Sp. Char. Adult: Above, including whole back, clear bluish gray, or plum- 

 beous, with blackish shaft streaks; top of head deep black, the feathers pure 

 white beneath the surface; tail bluish gray, crossed by about four dusky bands, 

 these sometimes nearly obsolete on upper surface; lower parts white, the breast, 

 belly, sides and flanks thickly zigzagged or irregularly barred with slaty gray- 

 ish, the feathers, especially on the breast, often with dusky mesial streaks. 

 Young: Above, dusky grayish brown, more or less spotted with pale buff or 

 whitish, the feathers margined with buff, those of head and neck edged or 

 streaked with same; tail light grayish brown, narrowly tipped with white, and 

 crossed by four distinct bands of dusky, with a fifth less strongly marked, con- 

 cealed by upper coverts; lower parts whitish or pale buff, with distinct narrow 

 stripes of blackish, these more tear shaped on belly, broader and more spot-like 

 on sides and flanks. {Bidgicay.) 



Stretch of 

 Length. -wing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. Cere. 



Male 21.00 42.00 12.75 9.40 2.85 .75 .45 



Female... 22.50 44.50 14.00 11.50 2.95 .80 .45 



