THE AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 35 



notice of variations in color presented by some specimens from 

 Massachusetts and Maine. "Ordinarily this species has each 

 feather below centered with a longitudinal dark shaft-line, with 

 several transverse, broader but somewhat irregular, dark ashy- 

 brown bars on a lighter ground. Some specimens, however, as 

 one from Maine, have the transverse bars so narrow and broken 

 that the lower surface presents a nearly uniform, minutely mottled 

 appearance. Another specimen from Springfield, Mass., represents 

 the opposite extreme, it having the transverse bars broad, regular, 

 and quite far apart, so that its resemblance to average specimens 

 of Asiur palitnibarius (European Goshawk) is very close. The 

 color in this specimen is much darker throughout than is usual 

 in this species.""" The general and strong resemblance, however, 

 between the birds of the two continents is admitted by all our 

 authorities on both sides of the question ; and Wilson, describing 

 the first specimen seen by him, shot in the vicinity of Philadelphia, 

 observes: " If this be not the celebrated Goshawk, formerly so 

 much esteemed in falconry, it is very closely allied to it. I have 

 never myself seen a specimen of that bird in Europe ; and the 

 descriptions of their best naturalists vary considerably ; but from 

 a careful examination of the figure and account of the Goshawk 

 given by the ingenious Mr. Bewick (Brit. Birds, vol. I., page 65), 

 I have very little doubt that the present will be found to be the 

 same." This statement of Wilson's, considering the advance made 

 in ornithological investigation since his time, is but of little im- 

 portance, but the same impression has been and still is made 

 on the minds of European collectors by their first sight of the 

 American bird. Coues in his late work on the " Birds of the 

 North-West," in describing the American Goshawk, says : — 

 " My own comparisons have not been sufficiently extensive, 

 but careful examination of the materials at ni)^ command shows 

 me decided differences, constant enough to fairly warrant specific 

 discrimination, although I should not be surprised if larger series 

 led to a different result." 



Sp. Char. Adult. Head above, neck behind, and stripe from behind the eye, black, gener- 

 ally more or less tinged with ashy ; other upper parts dark ashy bluish or slate color, with the 



•J. A. Allen in Bullet n Mus. Comp. Zool., Harv. Coll., Cambridge, Mass. (Vol II., p. 321.) 



