THE GOSHAWK. 61 
company with the Peregrine Faleon (falco anatum). It is a restless bird, 
apparently more vigilant and industrious than many other hawks, and it 
seldom alights unless to devour its prey; nor can I recollect ever having 
seen one alighted, for many minutes at a time, without having a bird in its 
talons. When thus engaged with its prey, it stands nearly upright; and, 
in general, when perched, it keeps itself more erect than most species of 
hawks. It is extremely expert at catching snipes on the wing; and so well 
do these birds know their insecurity, that on its approach they prefer squat- 
ting to endeavoring to escape by flight. 
“When the passenger pigeons are abundant in the western country, the 
Goshawk follows their close masses, and subsists upon them. <A single 
hawk suffices to spread the greatest terror among their ranks; and the mo- 
ment he sweeps towards a flock, the whole immediately dive into the deepest 
woods, where, notwithstanding their great speed, the marauder succeeds in 
clutching the fattest. While travelling along the Ohio, I observed several 
hawks of this species in the train of millions of these pigeons. Towards 
the evening of the same day, I saw one abandoning its course to give chase 
to a large flock of Crow Blackbirds ( Quiscalus versicolor), then crossing 
the river. The hawk approached them with the swiftness of an arrow, 
when the blackbirds rushed together so closely, that the flock looked like a 
dusky ball passing through the air. On reaching the mass, he, with the 
greatest ease, seized first one, and then another, and another, giving each a 
squeeze with his talons, and suffering it to drop upon the water. In this 
manner he had procured four or five before the poor birds reached the woods, 
into which they immediately plunged, when he gave up the chase, swept 
over the water in graceful curves, and picked up the fruits of his industry, 
earrying each bird singly to the shore. Reader, is this instinct or reason ? 
“The nest of the Goshawk is placed on the branches of a tree, near the 
trunk or main stem. It is of great size, and resembles that of our crow, 
or some species of owl, being constructed of withered twigs and coarse grass, 
with a lining of fibrous strips of plants resembling hemp. It is, however, 
much flatter than that of the crow. In one, I found, in the month of April, 
three eggs, ready to be hatched: they were of a dull bluish-white, sparingly 
spotted with light reddish-brown. In another, which I found placed on a 
pine tree growing on the eastern rocky bank of the Niagara River, a few 
miles below the ereat cataract, the lining was formed of withered herbaceous 
plants, with a few feathers: the eggs were four in number, of a white color 
tinged with greenish-blue, large, much rounded, and somewhat granulated. 
“In another nest were four young birds, covered with buff-colored down, 
their legs and feet of a pale yellowish flesh-color, the bill light blue, and the 
eyes pale gray. They differed greatly in size, one being quite small com- 
NO. XIII. OL 
