V °LP] General Notes. 25 J 



Obliteration of the Tarsal Scutella in Accipiter cooperi in Texas. — 

 The daring sallies of this species often costs it its own life, but I have 

 never known it to chase a barnyard fowl through an open window and 

 under a bed, as is recorded' of the Goshawk. 



December 5, 1893, sitting by my window I heard a scream from my 

 child outside and on looking through the window saw her sitting on a 

 hen-coop with a Cooper's Hawk making repeated swoops at the young 

 chickens in the coop. The child was feeding the fowls through an 

 opening and some of the food had fallen outside; at this the weaklings 

 were picking when the assault was made. The chickens took shelter in 

 the coop and the marauder perched in a lone tree in a field some two 

 hundred yards away. Calling to my 3 on, whose horse was standing 

 saddled at the gate, he rode out and brought down the Hawk as it 

 sought safety in flight. 



On taking the bird in hand I at once saw that I had a specimen with 

 fused tarsal scales. Having noted Dr. Coues' record 2 that such a state 

 had not been observed in A. cooperi. I at once began an investigation by 

 writing to sundry ornithologists in position to have information upon 

 this subject. The result of this investigation goes to show that the word 

 fusion is rather out of place when applied to certain Texan examples, as 

 the scales are not only fused but so much obliterated as to be indistin- 

 guishable under a hand lens. After I had learned that the lines of the 

 individual scutella were obsolete in at least two specimens 1 had collected 

 in Cooke County, Texas, I became more pointed in my interrogations, 

 in some instances questioning my correspondents a second time (no 

 doubt to their annoyance) on the subject. 



Following are some of the replies as to fusion in northern and eastern 

 specimens : — 



"None of my other specimens (I have large series) show complete 

 fusion, but in several the divisions between the scales are not at all dis- 

 tinctly marked." — W. B., Dec. 23, 1S93. 



"I would say that to the best of my recollection I have never seen nor 

 heard of a specimen of Accipiter cooperi in which the tarsal scutella were 

 fused." — R. R., Dec. 11, 1S93. 



"Replying to your inquiry of the 16th the tarsal scutella of adults of 

 A. cooperi and A. velox are normally fused." — -F. M. C, Dec. 22, 1S93. 



Below I quote some replies relative to the obliteration of the lines 

 marking the divisions between the individual scales: — 



"Most of my adult Massachusetts Cooper's Hawks show distinct scales 

 on the tarsus. In one or iwo they are somewhat indistinct, but in no 

 case quite obsolete." — W. B., Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 24, 1894. 



"As I wrote you previously in answer to the same question Accipiter 



1 Hatch, Birds of Minnesota, p. 184. 



2 Birds of the Northwest, p. 335. 



