GOSHAWK. 59 



the falconer found her, and just as he had lifted her, the 

 Pheasant ran and rose." 



As the flight of the Goshawk is low, and it takes its 

 prey near the ground, the females were flown at hares and 

 rabbits : the males, which are much smaller, were flown at 

 partridges. 



The Goshawk is a rare species in the South of England, 

 and the few that are used for hawking are obtained from 

 the Continent. Colonel Thornton, who kept them con- 

 stantly in Yorkshire, procured some of his specimens from 

 Scotland. Dr. Moore, in his catalogue of the birds of 

 Devonshire, says that it is found occasionally on Dartmoor ; 

 but I can find no record of its appearance farther west in 

 England, nor any notice of it in Ireland. A fine adult 

 male was trapped by a gamekeeper in Suffolk in March 

 1883; and Mr. Doubleday of Epping has sent me word 

 that he received a young bird from Norfolk in the spring 

 of the same year. Mr. Selby mentions that he had never 

 seen a recent specimen south of the Tweed ; but states tnat 

 it is known to breed in the forest of Rothiemurcus, and on 

 the wooded banks of the Dee. Mr. Low says that this 

 species is pretty frequent in Orkney ; but as he speaks 

 of it in connexion with sea-beaten rocks without shelter 

 or woods, is there not reason to suspect that Mr. Low was 

 mistaken, and that the birds he saw were Peregrine Falcons, 

 — the more so as several recent visitors to these northern 

 islands have observed Peregrines, but no Goshawks ? 



According to Muller, Linneus, and Pennant, the Gos- 

 hawk inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Siberia, Russia, 

 and Chinese Tartary. It is said to be plentifid in Ger- 

 many, rare in Holland ; but according to Vieillot it inhabits 

 France, Switzerland, and North Africa. 



Mr. Hoy, who has frequently visited Germany, has sup- 



