168 Birds of Colorado 
sometimes blotched and spotted with buffy or brown. 
They average 1°80 x 1°40. The male assists the female 
in the construction of the nest, the incubation of the 
eggs and the rearing of the young. According to Gale, 
fresh eggs should be looked for near Gold Hill from 
May 25th to June 10th, but the notices of the breeding 
of the Marsh-Hawk in Colorado are very scanty. 
Genus ACCIPITER. 
Bill moderate or rather small, edge of the upper mandible slightly 
festooned ; nostrilsrounded ; wing rather short, the five outer primaries 
emarginate on the inner web, the sixth and seventh the longest; tail 
long, about 2 of wing, slightly rounded; legs long, tarsus feathered 
about 3, rather slender, with scutes in front and behind, often 
fusing to one long “‘ boot ” ; middle toe very long, without claw, clearly 
exceeding the outer toe with claw. 
A large, almost cosmopolitan genus of some thirty species; only 
two occur in the United States. 
Key oF THE SPECIES. 
A. Smaller; wing 6 to 8-5; tail even. A. velox, p. 168. 
B. Larger; wing 9 to 11; tail rounded. A. cooperi, p. 170. 
Sharp-shinned Hawk. Accipiter velox. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 332—Colorado Records—Ridgway 73, p. 186 
(Nisus fuscus); Drew 81, p. 141; 85, p. 17; Allen & Brewster 83, 
p- 197; Morrison 87, p. 27; 88, p. 115; 89, p. 7; Lowe 94, p. 267; 
Cooke 97, pp. 74, 204; Henderson 03, p. 235; 09, p. 229; Warren 06, 
p- 10; 09, p.14; Gilman 07, p. 154; Rockwell 08, p. 161; Hersey & 
Rockwell 09, p. 116. 
Description.—Male—Above dark slaty-blue, dusky on the quills, the 
tail with four cross-bands of dusky and a narrow terminal edging of 
whitish ; nape-feathers and scapulars with concealed white bases; 
below white, the middle parts mottled in irregular cross-bars with pale 
tawny ; quills strongly banded below with black and white ; tail square ; 
iris yellow, bill bluish-horn, cere greenish, legs yellow. Length 12-0; 
wing 7-3; tail 5-75; culmen -6; tarsus 1-8. 
The female resembles the male but is larger; length 13-5; wing 
8-5. A young bird is dusky brown above with tawny edges to most 
of the feathers, and the white of the head and scapulars often showing 
through ; below white, with longitudinal stripes of brown and darker 
brown shaft-marks. 
