226 COOPER'S HAWK. 



procuied, was shot on the 12th of December, while in the act of de 

 vouring on the ground, a full-grown Ruffed Grouse which he had killed, 

 though a larger and heavier bird than himself. Mr. Cooper, the friend 

 to whom we have dedicated this species, has recently favored us with an 

 accurate description of a specimen of a somewhat larger size, shot in 

 the early part of November, on the eastern part of Long Island. 



The male Cooper's Hawk is eighteen inches in length, and nearly 

 thirty in extent. The bill is black, or rather blackish-brown ; the cere 

 greenish-yellow ; the angles of the mouth yellow. The irides are bright- 

 yellow. The general color above is chocolate-brown, the feathers being 

 whitish-gray at base ; on the head, and neck above, they are blackish, 

 margined with rufous, pure white towards the base, and grayish at the 

 bottom, the white color showing itself on the top and sides of the neck, 

 and being much purer on the nucha. The back and rump are the same, 

 but the feathers larger, and lighter colored, less margined with rufous, 

 more widely grayish at base, and bearing each four regular spots of 

 white in the middle of their length, which are not seen unless when the 

 feathers are turned aside. The whole ' body beneath is white, each 

 feather, including the lower wing coverts and femorals, marked with a 

 long, dusky medial stripe, broader and oblanceolate on the breast and 

 flanks (some of the feathers of which have also a blackish band across 

 the middle), the throat, and under wing coverts ; the long feathers of 

 the flanks (or long axillary feathers) are white banded with blackish ; 

 the vent and lower tail coverts pure white ; the wings are nine inches 

 long, and when folded, hardly reach to the second bar of the tail from the 

 base ; the smaller wing coverts and scapulars, are like the back, the 

 quills brown above (lighter on the shaft) and silvery-gray beneath, re- 

 gularly crossed by blackish bands, less conspicuous above ; the space 

 between the bands is white on the inner vanes at base ; some of the 

 secondaries and tertials are tipped and edged with rusty, and have more 

 and more of white as they approach the body, so that those nearest 

 may in fact be described as white banded with blackish. The first pri- 

 mary is very short, more so than the secondaries ; the second is equal 

 to the sixth, the third to the fifth, these two last mentioned being hardly 

 shorter than the fourth, which, as in all Astures, is longest. The tail 

 is full eight inches long, reaching five beyond the wings ; its color is 

 ashy-brown, much paler beneath, tipped with whitish, and crossed by 

 four equidistant blackish bands, nearly one inch in breadth ; the tail 

 coverts at their very base are whitish ; the lateral feathers are lighter, 

 and with some white on the inner webs. The legs and feet are yellow, 

 slender, and elongated, but still do not reach, when extended, to the tip 

 of the tail ; the tarsus, feathered in front for a short space, is two and 

 three-quafter inches long ; as in other Astures, the middle toe is much 

 the longest, and the inner, without the nail, is shorter than the outer. 



