134 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Edwin Beaiipre writes to me that on two occasions a goshawk 

 attacked and attempted to carry off wooden duck decoys. Illustrat- 

 ing the fierceness and savagery of this hawk, Nuttall (1832) says 

 that the female of a mated pair in captivity killed her mate. The 

 Rev. C. W. G. Eifrig (1907a) writes of a battle between a goshawk 

 and a barred owl : 



One morning last February* Mr. Hugo Paesolor, a farmer, on going out into 

 the woods adjoining his farm, noticed a space of about ten to fifteen feet 

 square, where the snow had recently been much disturbed, deeply plowed up 

 from some great commotion. That a fierce fight had been going on but a short 

 while before was evident from the liberal quantities of blood sprinkled on the 

 snow and the masses of feathers, single and in whole bunches, lying about and 

 adhering to bushes and trees. On looking around for the principals of the 

 fight, he found about ten feet away in one direction a Goshawk, lying on the 

 snow with wings extended and frozen stiff. About ten feet away from the scene 

 of hostilities, in the opposite direction, he found an owl, more damaged than 

 the hawk, but still warm. It had alighted after the fight on a small spruce and 

 fallen off, as the snow showe<l, and with its last strength crawled into a small 

 log, lying with its hollow part conveniently near. 



The fierceness of breeding goshawks, in defence of their eggs or 

 young, has been noted many times. Clarence F. Stone writes to me 

 as follows : 



In 1921 I visited the goshawk nest on May 2. A new nest was made in a big 

 yellow birch tree along the bog run to Nicks Lake. 



The female was on nest, but when I was about 200 feet distant she swooj^ed 

 from nest and attacked me in a most savage manner. I could have killed her 

 but did not wish to. However, the attack became so ferocious, with lightning 

 rapidity of swoop after swoop, that I was obliged to protect myself with a 

 club. 



The nest was up about 45 feet. And there were no limbs for 25 feet. From 

 the time I strapped on climbers it was a question in my mind whether I could 

 reach the nest with a whole scalp. 



Luckily the male goshawk did not appear, so I had but one angry and bold 

 fighter to contend with. Before I reached the first limbs I was obliged to stall 

 on my climbers and hug the tree with one arm while I flailed at the bird with 

 a club. A score of times I missed but when she grabbed my cap and flew a 

 hundred feet with it, I realized I must back down or else wing her. 



Back she came with speed of an arrow, wings half closed, eyes blazing, and 

 uttering angry "cacs", all of which meant that to save my scalp I must wing 

 her. But she was so alert and quick that it was several minutes before I 

 clipped her fore wing so that she fell to the ground, still full of fight and 

 "cac-ing" loudly. 



Albert A. Cross has given me his notes on some still more thrilling 

 experiences that he, Harry E. Woods, and Lawrence J. Sykes had 

 with a nesting goshawk near Huntington, Mass. Mr. Woods visited 

 the nest before the eggs had hatched and "found the female goshawk 

 in a very bad humor and hostile; she making four attacks on him 

 while he was at the nest, coming at full speed and not uttering a 

 sound. Woods was able to protect himself in a degree by pulling 



