THE AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 33 



while on the other hand sometimes five winters pass over in which 

 not an individual is exposed for sale. It is now over ten years since 

 they were at all common around Montreal, and the same has been 

 the case in the neighborhood of Toronto and Hamilton. Mcllwraith 

 of the last city gives it in his " List of Birds observed near 

 Hamilton, C.W.," as " rather rare ; those procured being mostly in 

 immature plumage." In summer, however, and on most of our 

 expeditions, we have obtained specimens of this bird. It occurs 

 but sparingly in the high land of eastern Ontario — known as the 

 " Opionga Mountains," — between the St. Lawrence and Ottawa 

 rivers, but more numerously on the slopes of these towards both 

 rivers. It is rather abundant, and breeds in the section of 

 country to the northward of the Ottawa, or that traversed 'by the 

 rivers Gatineau, Lievre, and Rouge. I did not notice it on any 

 of the Manitoulin Islands, Lake Huron, and found it rare througrh- 

 out both this lake and Superior. At and around Quebec it 

 ajDpears to occur rather less frequently than to the westward, and 

 from that place to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence very few individ- 

 uals have as yet been met with. In Newfoundland it was not 

 observed by Reeks, but it is included in his list on the authority 

 of the settlers, "as the more enlightened in ornithology recognised 

 the plate of this species in Faun. Bor. Am., where the scientific 

 name only is given." This is singular, for the plate is wretched. 



I should have mentioned, while referrino- to Montreal, that 

 the eggs of this bird were taken on the summit of the mountain 

 there by Mr. Frothingham. Coues found it breeding in Labrador. 

 Audubon speaks of its breeding in New York and Pennsylvania ; 

 but Coues says, " such instances of breeding as this must be, I 

 think, exceptional." According to Dr. Brewer the egg of the 

 Goshawk is 2 5-16 long by i 15-16 broad, nearly spherical, roughly 

 granulated, soiled white, with a faint bluish shade " marked irreg- 

 ularly with large but quite faint blotches of drab and yellowish 

 brown." 



The egg of this species collected by Mr. J. J. Frothingham, 

 and now in the Museum of the Natural History Society, Montreal, 

 measures a shade over 2 inches in length, and is barely i5/s inches 



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