THE cooper's hawk. 27 



obsolete. Contains about twenty species of all countries, several of which intimately 

 resemble each other. Colors in North-American species very similar to each other, 

 especially in adult specimens, though they differ materially in size. 



ACCIPITEE COOPERII. — Bonaparte. 



The Cooper's Hawk. 



Falco Cooperii, Bonaparte. Am. Orn., II. 1 (1828). 

 Falco Slanleii, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. 186 (1831). 



Description. 



Adult. — Head above brownish-black, mixed with white on the occiput, other 

 upper parts darlv ashy-brown, witli the shafts of the feathers brownish-black; an 

 obscure rufous collar on the neck behind ; throat and under tail coverts white, the 

 former with lines of dark-brown ; other under parts transversely barred with light 

 rufous and white; quills ashy-brown, with darker bands, and white irregular 

 markings on their inner webs; tail dark cinereous, tipped with white, and with four 

 wide bands of brownish-black. 



Young. — Head and neck behind yellowish-white, tinged with rufous, and with 

 longitudinal stripes and oblong spots of brown; other upper parts light amber- 

 brown, with large partially concealed spots and bars of white ; upper tail coverts 

 tipped with white; under parts white, with narrow longitudinal stripes of light- 

 brown ; tail as in adult ; bill bluish horn-color ; tarsi yellow ; iris in adult, reddish- 

 orange ; in young, bright yellow. 



Total length, male fifteen to sixteen inches; wing, nine; tail, eight inches. 

 Female, total length, seventeen to eighteen inches; wing, nine and a half to ten; 

 tail, nine inches. 



It is a noticeable fact in the history of many of our birds, 

 that in different periods, from some cause or other, many 

 species have increased in number to a remarkable extent, 

 while others have diminished in like proportion. Some 

 have moved from sections in which they were for years 

 common residents, to others in which they were, compara- 

 tively, strangers. 



The Cooper's or Stanley Hawk of Audubon has had one 

 of these changes ; and throughout New England, where it 

 was formerly a comparatively rare species, it is now one of 

 the most abundant of our birds of prey. 



The habits of the Cooper's Hawk are generally well 

 known. It is the smallest of those known by the name of 

 " Hen Hawk ; " and the mischief it does among domestic 

 poultry well earns for it this title. 



