THE cooper's hawk. 27 



obsolete. Contains about twenty species of all countries, several of which intimately 

 resemble each other. Colors in North-American species very similar to each other 

 especially in adult specimens, though they differ materially in size. 



ACCIPITEE COOPEBII. — Bonaparte. 



The Cooper's Hawk. 



Fako Coqperii, Bonaparte. Am. Orn., II. 1 (1828). 

 Falco Stanleii, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. 186 (1831). 



Description. 



Adult. — Head above brownish-black, mixed with white on the oeciput, other 

 upper parts dark ashy-brown, with the shafts of the feathers brownish-black; an 

 obscure rufous collar on the neck behind; throat and under tail coverts white, the 

 former with lines of dark-brown ; other under parts transversely barred with light 

 rufous and white; quills ashy-brown, with darker bands, and white irregular 

 markings on their inner webs ; tail dark cinereous, tipped with white, and with four 

 wide bands of brownish-black. 



Young. — Head and neck behind yellowish-white, tinged with rufous, and with 

 longitudinal stripes and oblong spots of brown; ofcher upper parts light amber- 

 brown, with large partially concealed spots and bars of white ; upper tail coverts 

 tipped with white; under parts white, with narrow longitudinal stripes of light- 

 brown; tail as in adult; bill bluish horn-color; tarsi yellow; iris in adult, reddish- 

 orange ; in young, bright yellow. 



Total length, male fifteen to sixteen inches; wing, nine; tail, eight inches. 

 Female, total length, seventeen to eighteen inches; wing, nine and a half to ten; 

 tail, nine inches. 



It is a noticeable fact in the history of many of our birds, 

 that in different periods, from some cause or other, many 

 species have increased in number to a remarkable extent, 

 while others have diminished in like proportion. Some 

 have moved from sections in which they were for years 

 common residents, to others in which they were, compara- 

 tively, strangers. 



The Cooper's or Stanley Hawk of Audubon has had one 

 of these changes ; and throughout New England, where it 

 was formerly a comparatively rare species, it is now one of 

 the most abundant of our birds of prey. 



The habits of the Cooper's Hawk are generally -well 

 known. It is the smallest of those known by the name of 

 " Hen Hawk ; " and the mischief it does among domestic 

 poultry well earns for it this title. 



