^34 Scientific Proceedings, Moyal Dublin Society. 



most abundant of the large hawks upon the prairie, to which it 

 is a winter visitor, arriving about the middle of September and 

 leaving during April. The females and young precede the adult 

 males by fully a month in the fall migration, but I never remarked 

 any separation of the sexes prior to their departure in spring. 

 Although generally roosting upon the ground among long grass, 

 they not unfrequently choose a fence, or even one of the lower 

 branches of a tree, for this purpose. When searching for food, 

 they generally follow the same beat day after day, examining 

 every foot of the ground with the utmost minuteness, and upon 

 observing a prey close their wings, and seem to fall on the top of 

 it. They never or very rarely pursue a bird on the wing, and so 

 well is this understood that, on their approach, all the small birds 

 in the neighbourhood rise into the air. Cottontail rabbits and 

 meadow larks seem to be their ordinary food, but nothing edible 

 comes amiss to them. In one very large female the breast, 

 abdomen, crissum, and lower tail coverts were immaculate, but 

 in all others broadl}' striped. A careful measurement of the 

 tarsi of a number of specimens gave — males, 2"8()-2^.90 ; females 

 3-30-3-40. 



AcciPiTER COOPERI, Bonap. Cooper's Hawk — So far as my 

 observations go this species is only a winter visitor, and much 

 more abundant in the fall than at any other season. They may 

 then be found in all the open districts, seated on low trees and 

 fences, or skimming quickly by, a few feet from the ground, but 

 in winter those which remain haunt the edges of the timber 

 in the neighbourhood of farm buildings, feeding chiefly on doves, 

 larks, and such poultry as they can carry off, the swiftness and 

 noiselessness of their flight allowing them to perform their rob- 

 beries with a minimum of dan^fer to themselves. 



AcciPiTER FUSCLTS (Gmel.) Sharp-shinned Hawk — A winter 

 visitor in small numbers to the more open districts. They prefer 

 isolated clumps and narrow belts of trees on the prairie, to which 

 they resort nightly to roost, but during the day are found about 

 farms and open lands, where they feed on small birds, which they 

 procure by gliding swiftly and stealthily from behind ihe cover 

 of an out-house, fence, and such like, and so silently that the 

 victim is seized and carried off before its comrades have time to 

 realize what has happened. 



