130 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



belly, with hastate siDots of "bone brown." The cinnamon colors 

 soon fade to pinkish white and eventually to dull white. 



The Juvenal plumage is worn for about a year, and it is not an 

 uncommon occurrence to find one of a breeding pair in this plumage ; 

 rarely both birds of a breeding pair have been in this plumage. I 

 have seen one young bird molting into the second year plumage in 

 February, but usually this molt, which is complete, begins late in 

 June or in July and is completed in October or early in November. 



The second-year plumage is much like that of the adult, but the 

 crown is streaked with white and the breast is heavily marked with 

 broad shaft streaks and transverse bars or spots of brownish black. 

 I have a young eastern bird in my collection showing the molt into 

 this plumage. Harry S. Swarth (1926) evidently regards this type 

 of markings as a racial rather than an age character, for he describes 

 a young bird completing the molt from the juvenal plumage into an 

 adult plumage, which is "pale colored and finely barred, as in atrl- 

 capillus^'' He says further: "The specimen just described (as well 

 as another similar bird collected by Brooks) shows that differences 

 of coarse or fine markings cannot be explained as different stages 

 reached by the same individual." 



Most other authors regard this as a second-year plumage. Major 

 Brooks (1927) says: 



I entirely agree with Taverner tliat the heavily barred and striated adult 

 plumage of the Goshawks is only one of age and is acquireil the second year, 

 the markings getting finer and more uniform with each successive year. This 

 heavily marked stage may not be universal — it would be rash to say that 

 anything was constant with such extraordinarily variable birds as the raptors. 

 But that it does exist in a large proportion of cases is evident to anyone who 

 has examined many Goshawks, not only in the dark colored race of the 

 extreme northwest, but in the palest of eastern birds. Hence it cannot be 

 regarded as a subspeciflc character. I have not seen the specimen taken Sep- 

 tember 5, so cannot say anything about its peculiarities. But the other "sim- 

 ilar bird collected by Brooks" distinctly supports Taverner's theory, as does 

 another light-colored adult taken at Atlin which Swarth has forgotten. 



The fully adult plumage, characterized by the clear black crown 

 and pale, finely vermiculated under parts with narrow shaft streaks, 

 is acquired at the next annual molt. Adults have one complete an- 

 nual molt at variable times during late spring, surmner, and fall. 

 The sexes are alike in all plumages, but there is a decided difference 

 in size. Dr. George M. Sutton (1928) has shown that females 

 average about 9 ounces (nearly one-third) heavier than males. 



Food. — Dr. A. K. Fisher (1893) summarizes the food of the gos- 

 hawk as follows : "Of 28 stomachs examined, 9 contained poultry or 

 game birds; 2, other birds; 10, mammals; 3, insects; 1, centiped; and 

 8 were empty." 



