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THE GOSHAWK. 



Falco falumbarius, Linn. 



PLATE CXLI. Adult Male and Young Male (with Adult Stanley Hawk). 



The Goshawk is of rare occurrence in most parts of the United 

 States, and the districts of North America to which it usually retires to 

 breed are as yet unknown. Some individuals nestle within the Union, 

 t)thers in the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but 

 the greater part seem to proceed farther north. I saw none, however, in 

 Labrador, but was informed that they are plentiful in the wooded parts 

 of Newfoundland. On returning from the north, they make their ap- 

 pearance in the Middle States about the beginning of September, and af- 

 ter that season range to very great distances. I liaAe found them rather 

 abundant in the lower parts of Kentucky and Indiana, and in severe 

 winters I have seen a few even in Louisiana. In the Great Pine Forest of 

 Pennsylvania, and at the Falls of Niagara, I have observed them breed- 

 ing. During autumn and winter, they are common in Maine, as well as 

 in Nova Scotia, where I have seen six or seven specimens that were pro- 

 cured by a single person in the course of a season. At Pictou, Profes- 

 sor MacCulloch shewed me about a dozen well mounted specimens of 

 both sexes, and of different ages, which he had procured in the neigh- 

 bourhood. In that country, they prey on hares, the Canada Grous, the 

 Ruffed Grous, and Wild Ducks. In Maine, they are so daring as to 

 come to the very door of the farmery's house, and carry off chickens and 

 ducks with such rapidity as generally to elude all attempts to shoot them. 

 AVhen residing in Kentuck} ^ shot a great number of these birds, parti- 

 cularly, one cold winter, near Henderson, when I killed a dozen or more 

 on the ice in Canoe Creek, where I generally surprised them by ap- 

 proaching the deep banks of that stream with caution, and not unfre- 

 quently almost above them, when their escape was rendered rather diffi- 

 cult. They there caught mallards with ease, and after killing them 

 turned them belly upwards, and ate only the flesh of the breast, pull- 

 ing the feathers with great neatness, and throwing them round the bird, 

 as if it had been plucked by the hand of man. 



VOL. II. , Q 



