78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



frequently as the Marsh, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed hawks because 

 it remains most of the time silently under cover of the forest. 



Habits. This hawk resembles the Sharp-shinned hawk in habits as 

 well as in appearance, being fully as fierce and intrepid as that little pirate 

 and much more destructive to game birds and poultry on account of its 

 greater size and strength. Early in April, before the migration of those 

 individuals that are to breed farther northward has ceased, our summer 

 residents pair and select some old crow's or hawk's nest or the forks of a 

 tree 20 to 50 feet from the ground as the site for their home. The nest 

 when entirely constructed by the hawks themselves is of good size, composed 

 of sticks and twigs and nearly always lined with the outer bark of trees, such 

 as the hemlock, cedar and yellow pine. In New York the eggs are laid 

 from April 25 to May 20. They are 3 to 5 in number, are of a pale bluish 

 white color, occasionally spotted lightly with brownish, resembling those of 

 the Marsh hawk but more broadly ovate, averaging about 1.90 by 1.55 

 inches. The period of incubation lasts about 24 days, and the young 

 hawks are covered with a whitish down. During the nesting season 

 the old birds occasionally utter a loud rattling or cackling noise similar 

 to the Sharp-shinned hawk's note but louder and also the repeated tick, 

 tick call, besides the loud shrill scream uttered by the setting female when 

 disturbed. At other times of the year this bird is mostly silent. 



Astur atricapillus atricapillus (Wilson) 

 Goshawk 



Plate 45 



Falco atricapillus Wilson. Am. Orn. 1812. 6:80. PL 52, fig. 3 

 Astur atricapillus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 19, fig. 4 and 5 

 Astur atricapillus atricapillus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 



p. 156. No. 334 



astur, Lat., a hawk, perhaps from aster, star, i. e. spotted; atricapillus, Lat., black- 

 haired, i. e. the top of the head black 



Description. A large powerful hawk with the general shape of the 

 Cooper hawk; but with the tarsus more robust and more extensively 

 feathered and scutellate. Upper parts dark bluish slate, the feathers with 



