589 



I have described is the darkest and richest-coloured specimen, there being no shade of brown on the 

 upper parts ; but I possess also a very old male from Dessau which has the upper parts clear light blue- 

 grey or slaty blue, as clear in shade as in any Peregrine, and the underparts are white, marked with 

 faint narrow greyish bars, the throat being white with only very faint shaft-markings to the feathers. 

 The females are, as a rule, rather browner in the coloration of the upper parts, and are, if any thing, 

 more broadly barred on the under surface of the body. The young also differ greatly in shade, some 

 being very dark, and others very light, some with the underparts white with only small markings, and 

 others with underparts pale rufous with large and bold markings. I cannot refer Falco longipes, Nilsson, 

 to any thing but a dark young bird of the present species, as the measurements agree, and the descrip- 

 tion and figure fit tolerably closely with a young female in my collection from Archangel. Besides, 

 there is no other large short-winged Hawk found in Lapland (whence Nilsson's F. longipes came), 

 except the Goshawk. 



The Goshawk inhabits Europe generally, and Northern and Central Asia, being of rare occur- 

 rence in Africa, and only found as a straggler on the plains of India. 



It is only met with in Great Britain as a rare straggler ; and, referring to the number of 

 occurrences recorded during the last twenty years, Professor Newton says (Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 84) 

 that two were obtained in Kent in 1844 and 1846, five have been captured in Suffolk, eleven in 

 Norfolk, one in Nottinghamshire in 1848, and seven in Northumberland and the adjacent 

 counties. Mr. Robert Gray says (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 36) that " as a Scottish species the 

 Goshawk is now, in common with other conspicuous birds of prey, very rarely met with. In the 

 western districts it has never, indeed, come under my observation, either alive or recently 

 captured. I am indebted, however, to my obliging correspondent, the Rev. Alex. Stewart, of 

 Ballachulish, for a record of its occurrence in Argyleshire over a period of twenty years. Two 

 were seen by that gentleman thirteen years ago in Glasgow ; they were newly stuffed, and had 

 been shot on the Lochbuy estate, in Mull. Another was killed in Glenorchy in 1848, and was 

 in the possession of Dr. Aldcroft, of Oban. A third specimen, a female, was shot in the district 

 of Appin a few years ago, and belonged to the late Captain Sutherland, of Invercoe, Glencoe. 

 Mr. Stewart also states that he saw a living specimen of the Goshawk in August 1866, on board 

 the yacht 'Chloe,' the owner, J. Rattray, Esq., having procured it in Orkney a short time 

 previously." Mr. Gray adds that he has known it to breed in Kirkcudbrightshire within a 

 comparatively recent period, and gives the following instances of its having been obtained 

 within the last fifty years, viz. : — one shot in Forfarshire in 1825, as recorded by Macgillivray ; 

 one shot near Tynehead, Mid-Lothian, on the loth December, 1865, recorded by Dr. Smith; 

 and one shot near Jedburgh on the 12th November, 1869, now in the possession of Lord Minto. 

 Thirty years ago, he says, it was rare in the parish of Golspie, Sutherlandshire ; but Mr. St. 

 John, writing in 1847, says that it bred regularly a few years previously in Morayshire, in the 

 Forest of Darnaway, and that it then also bred in the Glenmore, near Grantown, on the Spey. 

 Messrs. Baikie and Heddle state that the species is frequently observed in Orkney, and that 

 some apparently remain there during the whole year. In Shetland, however, it appears to be 

 rare, Dr. Saxby having in his possession the only specimen known to have occurred there ; it was 

 shot at Scaw in the winter of 1860. 



In Ireland it is much rarer than in England. Thompson could not give any authentic 



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