595 



Hawk is slipped, and follows horizontally the direction of the other, until it sees it descending, 

 when, springing up almost perpendicularly, the Hawk seizes the quarry. 



"The Goshawks I have had, after a preliminary education of Partridge-hunting, have 

 generally been put at Jungle-fowl, Kalleege Pheasant, Hares, and Peacocks, at all of which 

 they have done well ; I have taken a dozen Jungle Fowl in a couple of hours with them, using 

 dogs to flush the birds. They have also killed Peacocks in a single flight, and Hares without 

 ever having been booted. I have also taken Teal and Ducks in woody swamps, by appearing at 

 the water from a point whence a distant view could be had of the water-fowl. The Hawk, on 

 being shown the Ducks, would fly at once to the tree nearest to them, and there wait in ambush. 

 The beaters were then sent to flush the fowl, one of which the Hawk caught in the air as they 

 rose, almost perpendicularly, out of the water." 



The Goshawk nests late in April or early in May, either repairing its old nest or adapting 

 an old one of some other bird of prey, or else building a new nest. Mr. Wolley examined a 

 nest in Norwegian Lapland, which was built on a large Scotch fir, and which was so high that 

 when he stood on the branch on which its lower part rested, the top was some inches above his 

 head. The nest is usually placed not far from the edge of the forest, and, so far as my own 

 experience goes, is more frequently placed in a non-evergreen than a conifer tree. It is con- 

 structed of small boughs and coarse twigs, and is lined with finer twigs. The eggs, three or 

 four, seldom five, in number, are white, with a faint blue-green tinge ; and the surface of the 

 shell is rather rough. In a tolerably large series in my collection several eggs are very slightly 

 tinged with colour, which is certainly not owing to a nest-stain, but is true colour; for I tried to 

 remove it with water, in order to test it. In size the eggs in my collection average 2-^f by 

 1|§ inch. 



Referring to its breeding-habits in Denmark, Mr. A. Benzon, in a letter just to hand, gives 

 me the following information : — " As a rule, the nest is not placed so high as that of the Kite, 

 and is generally placed in the fork of a branch. It is constructed of branches and coarse twigs, 

 the inside being composed of fine twigs. It is not flat, like the nest of the Kite and the Buzzard, 

 but both broad and deep, and may be distinguished at a considerable distance by the shape. 

 The outside diameter is 1T5 metre, and the height from 092 to 1 metre; and the cup of the 

 nest measures 038 in inside diameter, and 0T6 metre in depth. Like most other birds of prey, 

 it uses the same nest year after year, and shows attachment to the place it has selected for 

 nidification. Usually one brood only is raised in the year ; but Mr. Fischer has in one instance 

 observed that a pair bred twice in the same season, the first clutch of four eggs being deposited 

 on the 23rd April, and the second clutch, consisting only of two eggs, on the 25th May, 1859. 

 The eggs are generally laid in April or early in May ; and the earliest-taken egg in my col- 

 lection is one laid on the 16th April, the latest being one obtained on the 8th May: but it 

 breeds later than this ; for, as above stated, Mr. Fischer took eggs on the 25th May. The normal 

 number of eggs is four ; but young and very old females lay only two or three." Mr. Carl Sachse 

 informs me that he took out of a Goshawk's nest three eggs on the 24th April and two on the 

 29th April, and on the 6th of June he found that the female had taken possession of an old 

 Buzzard's nest, not six hundred yards distant from its old nest, had repaired it, and had laid 

 and hatched one egg, the young bird being about two days old. He also says that in the part 



2 s 



