HAWKS 1 3 



female Sparrow-hawk sometimes, though rarely, 

 becomes blue on the back like the male. I have 

 seen instances of this. White specimens are very 

 rare. In The Zoologist, 1851, p. 3276, one was re- 

 corded by the late Sir Edward Newton as having 

 been taken near Elveden ; in 1876 Mr. Howlett, 

 the birdstufter at Newmarket, preserved a white 

 Sparrow-hawk that was shot at Garely, and a third 

 was in the collection of the late Frederick Bond 

 (ZooL, 1889, p. 419). Instances of albinism in the 

 Falconidse are rare ; in the case of the Northern 

 Jerfalcons and the Snowy Owl the white plumage 

 is normal, and of advantage to the species, favouring 

 an approach to their prey over snow-clad fells. 



GOSHAWK. AstuT paluvibarius (Linnasus). PI. 2, figs. 

 9, 10, 10a. Length, $ 19-5 in., $ 23 in.; wing, 

 ^ 12 in., $ 14 in. ; tarsus, ^ 3 in., $ 3-5. 



Formerly resident in the north of England and 

 Scotland, as well as in Ireland : Irish Goshawks 

 are mentioned by several authorities as having been 

 formerly held in great esteem by falconers. This bird 

 used to breed in the Forests of Darnaway, and Glen- 

 more, near Grantown on the Spey (St. John), and in 

 the Forest of Rothiemurcus, where Col. Thornton, who 

 died in 1823, procured one which he trained; also 

 in Kirkcudbrightshire (Lee, Naturalist, 1853, p. 45), 

 and in the woods of Castle Grant, Inverness, and Aber- 

 nethy and Dalnane Forests (Dunbar, Ibis, 1865, p. 10). 

 In Sept. 1862 the late A. E. Knox twice saw a Gos- 

 hawk in the Forest of Mar {in litt. Oct. 20, 1862). 



