78 C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 



157. Accipiter ftlSCUS (Gmelin) Bonaparte: Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



A common summer resident, breeding on trees and on high rocky 

 cliffs throughout the State. Mr. W. W. Coe writes me, that, of all 

 our Hawks, they are the latest to breed, laying their eggs, generally 

 five in number, in June. He has found them " in an old grey squir- 

 rel's nest fixed up for the occasion." Arrives in March, remaining 

 into November. F. W. Putnam, in 1856, gave it as " resident," but 

 " not abundant," in Essex County, Mass. I have no authentic 

 record of its occurrence here in winter. Dr. Wood writes : " Its 

 flight is quick, irregular, and so rapid, that, if your gun is not cocked 

 it will pass out of range before you can get aim. It pounces upon 

 its prey with such velocity that no time is allowed for escape. 

 While riding one day, one passed within a few feet of me and dashed 

 into a cluster of alders, interwoven with grapevines and briars, and 

 seized a half-grown quail, passing out with it, without scarcely check- 

 ing its speed. Although the hedge was within twenty feet of me, it 

 was so thick that I could not discern the bird until it appeared on the 

 opposite side in the talons of the Hawk. When hungry and in 

 search of game, it knows no fear, often diving within a few feet of 

 you and seizing a chicken. Sometimes you will see one flying along 

 very swift and low, wheeling right and left, taking a ' bird's-eye view' 

 of every hedge and bush, until it starts some little bird, whose fate is 

 surely sealed."* N uttall writes : " Descending furiously and blindly 

 upon its quarry, a young Hawk of this species broke through the glass 

 of the green-house, at the Cambridge Botanic Garden ; and fearlessly 

 passing through a second glass partition, he was only brought up by 

 the third, and caught, though little stunned by the effort."f 



158. Accipiter Cooper! (Bonaparte) Gray. Cooper's Hawk; Chicken 



Hawk. 



A common summer resident, generally placing its nest in some tall 

 pine or other high tree. " Their four eggs are usually deposited 

 about the middle of May. They frequently build a new nest every 

 year but often take possession of the old nest of a Red-tailed or Red- 

 shouldered Hawk."! Arrives in March, remaining into November. 

 Dr. Wood writes that he knew of six of their nests in the vicinity of 

 East Windsor Hill, Conn., in a single season, and that he obtained 



* Hartford Times, chap, x, May 25th, 1861. 



f Nuttall's Manual of Ornithology, vol. i, p. 88. 1832. 



\ MS. notes of W. W. Coe. 



