SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 35 
tints are paler. The difference in size between the two is as 
2, Or even 3, to I. 
Cooper’s Hawk is generally distributed throughout North Amer- 
ica from the fur countries to Mexico (in winter), though most 
abundant in the southern portions of New England and in the 
Middle States. 
It is called “ Chicken Hawk” by the Northern farmers. 
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 
ACCIPITER VELOX. 
CuHar. The adult may be best described as a small edition of 
Cooper’s Hawk, which it resembles in almost everything but size. The 
top of the head is bluish, and the cheeks have a reddish tinge. Length 
of male about 11 inches ; female some 2 inches longer. 
Nest. Ina tree; made of twigs, and lined with leaves and grass. 
Eggs. 3-5; bluish white or greenish white blotched with brown; 
1.45 X 1.15. 
This bold and daring species possesses all the courageous 
habits and temerity of the true Falcon; and if the princely 
amusement to which these birds were devoted was now in 
fashion, few species of the genus would be found more san- 
guinary and pugnacious than the present. The young bird is 
described by Pennant under the name of the Dubious Falcon, 
and he remarks its affinity to the European Sparrow Hawk. 
It is, however, somewhat less, differently marked on the head, 
and much more broadly and faintly barred below. The nest 
of our species, according to Audubon, is made in a tree, and the 
eggs are four or five, grayish white, blotched with dark brown ; 
they lay about the beginning to the middle of March. The 
true Sparrow Hawk shows considerable docility, is easily trained 
to hunt Partridges and Quails, and makes great destruction 
among Pigeons, young poultry, and small birds of all kinds. 
In the winter they migrate from Europe into Barbary and 
Greece, and are seen in great numbers out at sea, making such 
havoc among the birds of passage they happen to meet in 
their way that the sailors in the Mediterranean call them 
Corsairs. Wilson observed the female of our species descend 
