BIRDS OF NEW YORK 77 



ing when indulged in by a discriminating youth may become a strong 

 element in bird protection. 



Accipiter cooperi (Bonaparte) 

 Cooper Hawk 



Plates 43, 44 and 46 



Falco cooperii Bonaparte. Am. Orn. 1828. 2:1. PI. 10, fig. 1 

 Astur cooperi DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 18, fig. 10 

 Accipiter cooperi A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 156. No. 333 



cooperi, in honor of William Cooper 



Distinctive marks. A medium sized species, larger than the Sharp- 

 shinned hawk but of the same general shape and color, the tail more rounded, 

 the legs shorter and stouter, and the top of the head darker slate or blackish ; 

 in high plumage the Cooper hawk is of a clearer and more uniform bluish 

 slate on the upper parts. A large young female of this species resembles 

 closely a young male Goshawk in size and color, but may be surely dis- 

 tinguished by the feathering of the tarsus, which extends only one-third 

 of the way down the front of the slender tarsus in the Cooper hawk, but 

 one-half of the way on the stouter tarsus of the Goshawk. 



Length <? 15-18 inches, 9 18-20; extent d" 30, 9 36; wing <? 9-10, 

 9 io-ii; tail cf 7-8, 9 8-9; tarsus cf 2.60, 9 2.70; middle toe o" 1.60, 



9 I-75- 



Distribution. The Cooper hawk breeds throughout the United States 

 and southern Canada, and winters from southern New England and 

 Illinois southward into Mexico and Costa Rica. In New York it is common 

 during the migrations, March 20 to April 20 and September 15 to October 

 20, but may be seen at all times of the year except in the northern and 

 more elevated portions of the State, where it is only a summer resident. 

 In the more thickly settled districts it is much less common than formerly, 

 the nesting birds having been killed off on account of their destructiveness 

 to poultry and game birds. In the wilder and more wooded portions of 

 the State it is one of the commonest breeding species but is not seen as 



