224 COOPER'S HAWK. 



Birds they pluck very carefully, and quarter, before eating them, but 

 swallow small quadrupeds entire, afterwards ejecting their skins rolled 

 up into a ball. They always pursue and seize their prey upon the wing, 

 not falling upon it from aloft, but rapidly skimming the earth, make 

 their insidious approaches sideways, and singling out their victim, dart 

 upon it with fatal velocity. They never soar, like the Kites and Eagles, 

 to the upper regions of the atmosphere, and it is only during the nup- 

 tial season that they are observed sailing in wide circles in the air. 

 Their favorite haunts during summer are forests, building their nests 

 on trees ; in winter they spread over the plains. Though generally 

 observed alone, the male and his companion are seldom far apart. 

 During the youth of their progeny, the parents keep them company 

 in order to teach them to hunt their prey, and at such times they 

 are observed in families. 



This group may be further subdivided into two sections, to one of 

 which the name of Astur has more strictly been assigned, while the 

 other has been distinguished by those of Sparvius, and Aecipiter. 

 The former, of which the Goshawk of Europe and North America 

 (Black-capped Hawk of Wilson) is the type, is characterized by its 

 wings being somewhat longer, body more robust, and shorter and much 

 thicker tarsi. This is the only species that inhabits the United States 

 and Europe. 



The second section, to which the present new species belongs, pos- 

 sessing all its characters in a pre-eminent degree, equally with the 

 Hawk described by Wilson in its adult state as Falco pensylvanicus, 

 and in its youth as Falco velox, was established on the Sparrowhawk 

 of Europe, Faleo nisus ; but the American species just mentioned are 

 no less typical. The Hawks of this section are more elegantly shaped, 

 being much more slender ; their wings are still shorter than in the 

 other section, reaching little beyond the origin of the tail, and their 

 tarsi slender and elongated, with a smooth and almost continuous 

 covering. 



Notwithstanding their smaller size and diminished strength, their 

 superior courage and audacity, and the quickness of their movements, 

 enable them to turn the flight of the largest birds, and even some- 

 times, when in captivity together, to overcome them. We have kept a 

 Sparrowhawk {Falco nisus), which, in the space of twenty-four hours 

 that he was left unobserved, killed three Falcons which were confined 

 with him. 



The inextricable confusion reigning throughout the works of authors 

 who have not attended to the characters of the different groups of this 

 genus, renders it next to impossible to decide with any degree of cer- 

 tainty, whether our Falco cooperii has or has not been recorded. 

 Though agreeing imperfectly with many, we have not been able, not- 



