BIRDS OF NEW YORK 79 



black shaft-lines; tail with 4 or 5 broad blackish bars and tipped with 

 whitish; wings also barred; top of head and broad auricular stripe blackish; 

 a whitish stripe over the eyes, broadening toward the back of head where 

 the bases of the feathers are cottony white as in other true hawks (Accipi- 

 trinae) ; under parts white, thickly barred in fine wavy pattern or vermicu- 

 lated with slaty brown or dusky except on throat and crissum. All the 

 feathers, even on the throat, with blackish shaft-lines; bill dark bluish, 

 cere and feet yellow, iris red. Young: Dark brown above, margined 

 with rusty, and varied, especially on neck and scapulars, with whitish or 

 buffy; wings and tail, iDarred with blackish and buffy; under parts tawny 

 whitish, with oblong, club-shaped, or drop-shaped streaks; cere and feet 

 duller yellow, iris yellow, bill brownish. 



Length, cf 21-22 inches, 9 22-25; extent cf 41-43, 9 44-47; wing 



cf 12.50-13, 9 13.50-14.50; tail cf 9.50-10.50, 9 11-13; tarsus cf 2.90-3.10, 



92.95-3.17; middle toe c? 2.75, 9 1.90. 



Field marks. Adult hawks of this species can not be mistaken for the 

 Cooper hawk which is our only species approaching it in size and resembling 

 it in form. They are larger, have no rufous markings below, are more 

 blue and gray in general color and have the decided blackish crown and 

 ear-stripe as well as the whitish superciliary stripe. The young males 

 of this species are only slightly larger than the young females of cooperi 

 and resemble them in color but are more conspicuously buffy in the ground 

 color of the under parts, and of the tail and scapulars. When the bird 

 is in hand the feathering of the tarsus is, of course, distinctive. 



Distribution. The American Goshawk inhabits the boreal region of 

 North America, breeding from central Maine and northern New York 

 northward through the Hudsonian zone and wintering southward to 

 about the 38th parallel. In this State it is chiefly a winter visitor, 

 rather irregular in occurrence, but some years is fairly common, as in 

 1863, when many were killed on Long Island, and in 1889, 1895-96, 

 1898-99, and in 1906. On Long Island they usually appear between the 

 1 8th and 25th of December and disappear between the 15th and 27th of 

 March; in western New York my dates range between October 21 and 

 November 15 for arrival from the north, Mr Burtch giving one record for 

 September 15; and March 11 to 20 to 28 for last seen in the spring. Mr 



