332 GOSHAWK. 
Service nor the veteran taxidermist Mr. Hastings have ever met with 
an example anywhere in the Solway district; and it must be 
remembered that in many parts of Scotland (and elsewhere) the 
Peregrine Falcon is often miscalled ‘Goshawk.’ It is unknown in 
Sutherland, and nearly so in Caithness and the Shetlands ; but in 
the Outer Hebrides a young male was shot in December 1887 or 
January 1888. In Ireland only three occurrences are authenticated. 
The Goshawk is a rare visitor to Heligoland. It is common in 
the forest-regions of Scandinavia and Russia, down to the Black 
and Caspian Seas; it is also abundant in the wooded districts of 
Germany and Central Europe generally, and not rare in many 
parts of France, especially Normandy. In Italy, as well as in the 
Spanish Peninsula, it is rather scarce and local, though it breeds as 
far south as Andalucia ; it even nests in Morocco; while in winter it 
visits Egypt and Palestine. Eastward it ranges across Asia to the 
Sea of Okhotsk, Japan, and China. The young migrate from the 
northern districts ; the adults rarely do so. 
Though the old nest of some other species is occasionally repaired, 
the bird frequently builds its own, which isa large structure of sticks, 
placed in a tree—generally on the outskirts of a forest or near a 
clearing, and used year after year. The 4 eggs, laid in April or early 
in May, are pale bluish-grey, occasionally with a few rusty markings: 
measurements 2°3 by1°8in. The Goshawk is a bold and rapacious 
species, preying upon hares and smaller mammals, water-fowl, game- 
birds and poultry ; the shortness of its wings and the steering power 
given by its comparatively long tail enabling it to follow with 
marvellous rapidity every turn of its quarry, which it takes in a 
style called ¢vussing by falconers. Its hearing is very acute. 
The adult has a narrow white line above the eye and ear-coverts ; 
upper parts ash-brown, with four broad dark bars on the tail; under 
parts white, thickly barred with dull black; cere, iris, and legs 
yellow. Male: length 20 in., wing 12 in.; female: length 23 in., 
wing 14 in. The young bird has the upper parts brown, and five 
dark bands on the tail; under parts warm buff, with numerous 
drop-shaped markings of dark brown ; iris pearl-white. 
A specimen of the American Goshawk, Astur atricapillus, said 
—on somewhat slight evidence—to have been obtained in Perth- 
shire in 1869, is in the Edinburgh Museum ; and another, shot in 
Tipperary in 1870, is in the Dublin Museum. This distinct, though 
nearly allied species, has closely freckled—not barred—under parts ; 
it is not likely to be a genuine visitor to the British Islands. 
