THE GOSHAWK. . 23 



nuchal band, white; entire under parts mottled with white and light ashy-brown; 

 every feather with a longitudinal line of dark -brown on its shaft, and with numerous 

 irregular and imperfect transverse lines or narrow stripes of light ashy-brown, more 

 distinct and regular on the abdomen and tibice; quills brown, with bands of a deeper 

 shade of the same color, and of ashy-white on their inner webs; tail same color as 

 other upper parts; under surface verj' pale, nearly white, and having about four 

 obscure bands of a deeper shade of ashy-brown, and narrowly tipped with white ; 

 under tail coverts white. 



Young. -^Entire upper parts, including head, dark -brown, with the feathers, 

 especially on the head and neck behind, edged and spotted with light-reddish, or 

 nearly white; tail light-ashy, with about five wide and conspicuous bands of ashy- 

 brown, and narrowly tipped with ashy-white; quills brown, with wide bars of a 

 darker shade of the same color, and wide bands of reddish-white on their inner 

 webs ; under parts white, generally tinged with yellowish, and frequently with red- 

 dish ; every feather with a longitudinal stripe terminating in an ovate spot of brown ; 

 sides and tibiiB frequently with circular and lanceolate spots and irregular bands 

 of the same color, the tibise generally veiy conspicuously marked in this manner; 

 under tail coverts white, with a few large lanceolate spots of bro^vn. 



^^ Adult. — Bill black, light-blue at the base; cere greenish-yellow; eyebrow 

 greenish-blue ; iris reddish-orange ; feet yellow. 



"Young. — Bill as in the adult; iris light-yellow; feet greenish-yellow." — 

 Audubon. 



Total length, female, twenty-two to twenty-four inches; wing about fourteen; 

 tail, ten and a half to eleven inches. Male, about twenty inches ; wing, twelve and 

 a half; tail, nine and a half inches. 



This handsome hawk is a not very common winter visitor 

 in the New-England States ; at least, such is my observa- 

 tion, which is corroborated by many others, although Mr. 

 Verrill, in his catalogue of the birds of Maine,i says it is 

 common, and that it breeds there. I have never met with 

 a nest of this species, and have no authentic specimen of 

 its egg in my collection. In 1864, a gentleman brought 

 me two eggs that he found in a large hawk's nest in 

 Woburn, Mass. He described the hawk, which he killed, 

 and which corresponded pretty closely with that of this bird. 

 I showed him mounted specimens of the Goshawk, and he 

 thought them identical with his bird. As there was still a 

 doubt concerning the identity of the eggs, I did not label 

 them as of this species, and for the same reason will not 

 figure them in this work. So far as description goes, they 

 are almost exactly like the eggs of the Red-tailed Hawk 



1 Proceedings Essex Institute, vol. III. p. 140. 



