GOSHAWK. oO 
mouse, sails off to feed his expectant young ones. Mice seem © 
to form a favourite, if not staple, article of their food; but they 
are not exclusive in their diet. An occasional small bird, hosts 
of coleoptera or beetle-kind, cock-chafers in their season, grubs, 
and even worms, are known to be readily eaten by them. As 
intimated above, the species is everywhere familiar, and is alike 
too beautiful and too useful to be so wantonly killed as it too 
often is.— Fig. 6, plate I. 
14. GOSHAWK—(Astur palumbarius). 
We do not often see the Goshawk in any part of the kingdom, 
and very rarely indeed, except in some parts of Scotland and in 
Orkney. It, like the Peregrine, was in much request for the 
sport of Hawking: only, as its manner of flight was different 
from that of the Falcon, it was used for the pursuit of different 
species of game from the latter. Probably this really originated 
in the impulses of the Goshawk’s own Instinct, which leads it to 
attack Hares and Rabbits, or birds which, like the Partridge and 
Grouse, never voluntarily fly at any great height above the level 
of the ground. One curious habit of this bird is that of waiting 
patiently until some bird, which it has driven to covert, leaves 
its shelter, when the pursuit—after a pause of perhaps several 
hours—is immediately resumed, and probably carried to its pur- 
posed result. Most of the other Hawks, when baffled in the way 
noticed, very speedily relinquish all apparent thought or recol- 
Jection of the escaped creature, and proceed to seek for a fresh 
quarry. It builds its nest on some high tree; only the tree 
selected is never found in the inner and deep parts of the wood 
and forest. Like many other birds, both predatory and other, it 
will often return to the same nest, adding whatever repairs may 
be required, for several successive years. It lays three or four 
eggs, of a pale faint blue, quite untinged with any other colour. 
TD 
