In the Woods. 201 



Immature birds are dusky grayish brown above, the feathers martrined 

 with rufous ; those on the head are edged or streaked with a similar shade. 

 The tail and wings are brownish gray, darker than the back, the tail being 

 distinctly barred with black. The lower parts are white or cream color 

 streaked with dusky brown or black. The eyes are yellow. 



The birds nest in trees. They lay from tw^o to five nearly white eggs, 

 sometimes faintly marked or splashed with pale brown. They are about two 

 inches and a third long and one inch and three quarters in width. The birds 

 are northern in their distribution, breeding from the Northern United States 

 northward and wintering regularly as far south as the Middle States. 



The Sharp-shinned Hawk is the smallest of the trio of our Accipiters. 

 The males are noticeably smallei^ than the females, averaging about eleven 

 SharD-shinned inches and a half in length, whereas the females are fully two 

 Hawk. inches longer. Adult birds have the upper parts bluish 



Accipitcrveioxiwiis.i. slate color, the throat white with dusky streaks, and the 

 rest of the lower parts white barred with pale reddish brown or buff. The tail 

 is almost square with dusky barring and white tip, and the larger wing quills 

 are barred with dusky brown or black. The eyes are yellow or orange yellow. 

 Immature birds are dusky brown above, with reddish brown edgings to 

 the feathers, and the tail and larger feathers of the win^s much the same as 

 in the adult birds. The lower parts are white streaked more or less pro- 

 fusely with dusky or dark reddish brown. The eyes are pale yellow. 



Cooper's Hawk at first glance seems an enlarged copy of .Sharp-shinned 



Hawk, and differs but little from that bird save in size ; the males are about 



fifteen inches and a half in length, and the females are 



Cooper s Hawk. i-,-,ore than three inches longer. Adult birds have a dusky 



Accipiter coopeni iBonap.). . 



crown. The rest of the coloring and markings are about 

 the same as in the Sharp-shinned Hawks. Immature birds resemble that 

 phase in the smaller bird. The tail is rounded, the outer feathers being 

 much shorter than the ne.xt and so on, the middle ones being the longest. 

 The eyes are yellow. 



The two birds in any plumage may always be distinguished by the shape 

 of the end of the tail ; in the Sharp-shinned this is square, and in the Cooper's 

 Hawk it is noticeably rounded. 



