THE HAWKS OF NEW ENGLAND. 597 



have a gun, even in the best of cover, and yet they will sit on the 

 trees by the roadside and let carriages pass almost under them, 

 or fly back and forth within fifty yards of a team. Apparently 

 they have less fear of skaters than of pedestrians, probably hav- 

 ing learned from experience that any one on skates is hardly 

 likely to prove dangerous. They seem to see every one and every- 

 thing within a radius of a quarter of a mile, and never lose sight 

 of one for a moment. Most of those that I see are dark brown, 

 with a dark belt underneath, and the base of the tail is usu ally 

 white. Others are dark brown above and nearly black beneath, 

 the tail white with bands of black and gray near the tip. The 

 colors vary, however, from dark to light, a few being quite 

 black, with white spots on the tail and under the wings. 



They are seldom seen here in midwinter, but when the ice 

 breaks up in the spring they pass over on their way north, and 

 sometimes stop for a few days in the meadows. 



Another large hawk, whose swiftness and courage made him 

 a great favorite with the old falconers, is the goshawk, but as 



ROUGH LEGGED HAWK. 



most of them are colored like some of the other large hawks, and 

 are, moreover, extremely shy, keeping always to the dark, ever- 

 green woods, it is sometimes hard to be certain about having 

 seen one. This species could hardly be called common, though 

 occasionally in August birds that I take to be goshawks are very 



