38 COOPER'S HAWK— "CHICKEN HAWK." 



known about it. This bird is the F. Stanlcyi of Audubon, and the 

 Accipiter Mexicanus of Richardson in Fauna BoreaU Americana. 

 By some ornithologists the A. Jllexicaiiiis is regarded as a dis- 

 tinct species, but this, as in so many other instances, appears 

 to be merely founded upon a sHght difference in size and 

 darker coloring of plumage ; both of which diversities are 

 common to the individuals of a great number of species, 

 as we trace these from Canada through the Northern, Middle 

 and into the Southern States. The A. gundlacki, Lawr. of 

 Cuba, long considered as specifically distinct from A. Coopei-i, is 

 now regarded as merely its Southern variety. Although, as I 

 have already stated, perhaps only half a dozen specimens of this 

 Hawk are to be found in collections in Canada, I may add that 

 I have obtained several from collectors in the United States in 

 various stages, for the purpose of comparison. These are now on 

 the table before me, and alon^ side of them I have arranged a 

 series of male and female Sharp-shinned Hawks {A. fuscus). The 

 resemblance between the two series of birds is very striking, and 

 in fact the only difference perceptible to the ordinary observer, is 

 that of size and proportion. In other words. Cooper's Hawk is a 

 moderately larger reproduction of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, with 

 longer proportionate tail and stouter legs and feet. As one or 

 two writers have observed, it is just such a difference as we have 

 between the Downy Woodpkcker and the Hairy Woodpecker. 

 The dorsal plumage of both Cooper's and the Sharp-shinned 

 Hawks is of a dark or medium shade of brown, that of the latter 

 being as a rule the lighter or more ashy. The upper surface ot 

 the tail is in both cases distinctly banded or barred with brown — 

 these on A. Coopet'z being much broader than on A.fusais. On 

 the former the number of these bars is four, and on the latter five. 

 The tails of both are terminated with whitish, and the ends of the 

 feathers are rounded — much more so in the A. Cooperi than the 

 A. fusctis. The under parts of both of these species vary greatly, 

 but the diversities in the markings are as grreat among- the difter- 

 ent individuals of the one species as they are among those of the 

 other. In both A. Cooperi and A. fitscus the young birds are 

 longitudinally streaked beneath, but these streaks, as the birds 



