ASTUR PALUMBARIUS. 185 



therefore very useful and to be encouraged. However, I have 

 known of a dead Turtle-Dove in their nest, which the Eagle could 

 hardly have caught uninjured. 



The long tarsus, bare of feathers, will alone serve to distinguish it from 

 any other bird of prey of its size to be met with near Gibraltar. 



Adult. Above dark brown. Breast pure white, streaked with black. 

 Primaries banded below. Cere, legs, and feet pale greyish yellow on a 

 bluish ground-colour ; iris yellow ; inside of mouth pale blue. Length 

 26-30 inches. 



194. Astur palumbarius (Linnaeus). The Goshawk. 



Moon'sh. El boz (Favier). Spanish. Azor, Gavilan. 



"This Hawk is resident near Tangier, and is frequently seen 

 during passage ; but they are rarely met with in winter. They 

 pass northwards in April ; those which breed nest in May. The 

 eggs are pure bluish white, often much stained with yellow. The 

 young are so fierce that sometimes those in the same nest will 

 kill and eat one another." Favier. 



The Goshawk, well known in the wooded districts in Andalucia 

 under the same name as the Sparrowhawk, is considered " muy 

 valiente," being said to carry off partridges when they fall to the 

 gun : this I know from my own experience. I can but consider 

 them rare, having only met with the nest once, on the 15th of 

 May, 1871, when I shot the female bird as she flew off the nest, 

 which was a mass of sticks on an alder tree, about fifteen feet 

 from the ground or, rather, mud, in the thickest part of the Soto 

 Gordo, in the Cork-wood. The nest was evidently not a new one, 

 and seemed to be an old nest of some eagle repaired by the 

 Goshawks. It contained three eggs on the point of hatching, 

 stained yellow all over with dirt, so as to resemble the eggs of 

 a Grebe which had been sat on some time. On washing one of 

 these eggs, however, the bluish ground-colour appeared. 



I saw at Tangier several eggs, stained in the same manner, 

 marked as Goshawk's ; and until I took their fac-similes did not 

 believe them to be genuine. 



