BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION, 185 



82. Accipiter atricapillus (Wils.). 

 American Goshawk. 



Irregular and uncommon winter visitor. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



October 4, 1 896, one ad. seen, East Lexington, W. Faxon. 

 February 26, 1 868, one ad. seen, Watertown, W. Brewster. 



Goshawks invade eastern Massachusetts only at irregular and rather wide 

 intervals, but sometimes in considerable numbers. They arrive in October and 

 November and most of them pass further southward before January, although 

 some remain with us through the winter. During these flights the beautiful but 

 destructive birds are occasionally noted in the Cambridge Region. I saw a fine 

 adult in a grove of pitch pines immediately behind Mount Auburn on February 

 26, 1868, and another about a mile to the westward of Rock Meadow on Novem- 

 ber 16, 1880; while a third was met with by Mr. Walter Faxon at East Lex- 

 ington on October 4, 1896. I have an adult female that was taken in Lexing- 

 ton on December 14, 1896. 



Nuttall states (Land Birds, 1832, 85) that on October 26, 1830, he received 

 " from the proprietor of Fresh Pond Hotel " a Goshawk " in the moult, having 

 the stomach crammed with moles and mice." It "was shot in the act of 

 devouring a Pigeon," probably in the hemlock grove near the hotel. 



Mr. C. J. Maynard asserts that a pair of Goshawks "remained in Weston, 

 near a heavily wooded district, during the breeding-season" of 1868, adding 

 " they evidently had a nest in the immediate vicinity." ^ As he does not explain 

 under just what conditions, or even by whom, the birds were observed, one can- 

 not help suspecting that some mistake was made in their identification, especially 

 as we have no definite knowledge that the species has ever bred in Massachu- 

 setts. The most southerly breeding record for New England is, I believe, that 

 of a nest which was found by Mr. Ralph Hoffmann at Alstead in southern New 

 Hampshire in 1902.^ A young Goshawk taken by Mr. Hoffmann from this nest 

 is in my collection. 



' C. J. Maynard, Naturalist's Guide, 1870, 134-135. 

 2 R. Hoffmann, Auk, XX, 1903, 211-212. 



