AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 39 



THE AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 

 A STUR ATRICAPILLUS. 



KNOWING the aversion of many ornithologists to admit stragglers 

 into the list of British birds, I have some diffidence in present- 

 ing, for the first time, a notice of the occurrence of a species new to 

 this country. It is quite possible, however, that from its general 

 resemblance to the European bird, the American Goshawk may 

 have been hitherto passed over without detection, and may again 

 be found in Scotland. I therefore give it a place in this work, in 

 the expectation that some future observer may be able to note its 

 appearance a second or third time in Britain, and thus place it at 

 least on a level with other species whose occurrence has been 

 recorded at long and uncertain intervals. 



In May, 1869, when visiting the town of Brechin, in Forfarshire, 

 I was fortunate in finding a very handsome specimen of this 

 Goshawk in the hands of a bird-stuffer there, who had obtained 

 it a short time previously from a keeper in Perthshire, along with 

 a number of snow-buntings and other birds, shot by him on the 

 flanks of Shechallion, and all recently skinned. The bird was 

 kindly presented to me by its possessor, who looked upon it as a 

 " coarse sort of gled," and hardly worth the trouble of cleaning, 

 as the head had been much stained and the plumage otherwise 

 soiled by the person who skinned it. On proceeding to relax the 

 skin, it was found by the Glasgow stuffer whom I employed to 

 mount the bird, that the brains and eyes had not been removed, 

 nor the flesh from the wing-bones, so that no doubt could be 

 entertained as to its recent occurrence. The total length of the 

 specimen, apparently a female, is 24 J inches; wing, from shoulder 

 to tip of longest quill, 14 inches; tail, 10J inches. The distribu- 

 tion of the markings on the plumage is precisely that detailed 

 by the late Mr Cassin, Prince Bonaparte, and other writers, but 

 the head can scarcely be called black; the hind neck appears, 

 when the feathers are raised, as if spotted with yellowish white, 

 the same semicircular mark appearing on the occiput of a sparrow- 

 hawk. The breast and under parts are at first sight grey, but on 

 closer inspection show the faint transverse markings and a thin 

 longitudinal streak in the centre of each feather. 



The following concise distinctions are given by Sir William 



