14 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



According to Mr. Tottenham Lee, a pair of Gos- 

 hawks once took possession of a Raven's nest in 

 Roxburghshire [Nat., 1853, p. 45), and the late 

 Edward Hargitt had two eggs of the Goshawk 

 which were taken from a nest at Balmacara, Ross- 

 shire, in April 1871. This bird used to frequent 

 Oakley and Piper Woods, Leicestershire (Harley), 

 and Selby has noted its former occurrence on the 

 wooded banks of the Dee. Dr. John Hill, in his 

 " History of Animals," 1752, mentions a Goshawk's 

 nest in the Forest of Rockingham, Northants, and 

 states that a servant of his who climbed to the nest 

 was attacked with fury by the old birds. 



Although old works on Falconry state that 

 " the best Goshawks were procured in the north 

 of Ireland, as in the province of Ulster, but more 

 especially in the county of Tyrone," ^ Thompson 

 asserts (" Nat. Hist. Ireland," i. p. 62) that the 

 Goshawk " cannot be included in the Irish fauna 

 with certainty." This may have been true in his 

 day (1850), but could not have been so in the time 

 of Elizabeth and James L, when it is certain that 

 Goshawks were procured there for hawking in 

 England. The scarcity of this bird in Ireland at 

 the present day, and for some years past, is probably 

 due to the increased use of guns, and the consequent 

 destruction of large birds of prey, as well as to the 

 increased scarcity of timber ; for the Goshawk is a 



1 See Turbervile's " Book of Falconrie," 2nd ed., 1611, p. 60 ; Cox, 

 "The Gentleman's Recreation," 1697, p. 59; and Campbell's "Treatise 

 on Modern Falconry," 1780, p. 214. 



