GOSHAWK 267 



destructive of the American birds of prey; its 

 size, strength, and daring, together with its rapid 

 flight, making it most dangerous to game-birds 

 and poultry. It will actually dart down at the 

 very foot of the farmer and carry off a fowl. Major 

 Bendire denounces it as " savage and bloodthirsty 

 in disposition, a veritable terror to all smaller 

 birds, and more than a match for others consider- 

 ably larger than itself," and he declares that it 

 loves to destroy life for the sake of killing. 



In his ' Hawk and Owl Bulletin,' Doctor Fisher 

 gives an interesting account of its habits. " In 

 the fall," he says, " this Hawk is common along 

 the smaller watercourses, where it is very de- 

 structive to wild ducks and other water-fowl, and 

 is able to strike down a bird as large as a full- 

 grown Mallard. If its prey is a bird of this size 

 it rarely eats more than the flesh from the breast, 

 leaving the rest of the carcass untouched. . . . 



" Of the upland game-birds the Ptarmigan in 

 the north and the Buffed Grouse in the middle 

 districts suffer severely from the attacks of this 

 powerful Hawk. ... In some parts of the coun- 

 try the Goshawk hunts the Ruffed Grouse so 

 persistently that it is known by the name of 

 ' Partridge Hawk,' and this bird probably has no 

 worse enemy except man." 



