American Goshawk 17] 
poultry and pigeons, and according to Morrison, preys 
largely on grouse, hares and various reptiles. Out of 
133 stomachs examined by Fisher, 34 contained poultry 
and game and 52, other birds, while only 11 contained 
mammals. 
Cooper’s Hawk sometimes makes use of the old nests 
of other birds or even squirrels, and sometimes builds 
for itself. Gale found a nest forty feet up in a thick 
spruce, on May 29th, near Gold Hill. It was a bulky 
structure of sticks and twigs, with green sprays of 
balsam-fir intertwined, and contained four fresh eggs ; 
another nest, found June 28th, consisted merely of a few 
flakes of spruce bark lying on a natural bunch of matted 
scrub. The eggs, generally four, are pale bluish-white, 
sometimes immaculate, sometimes faintly marked with 
scrawls and spots of brown and fawn. They average 
1:90 x 1:50. Gale gives May 30th as an average date 
for fresh eggs, and states that the female is often very 
bold and pertinacious in defence of her nest. 
Genus ASTUR. 
Resembling Accipiter, but with stouter and shorter legs and toes; 
tarsus feathered at least half way down; middle toe without claw not 
exceeding outer toe with claw. 
A large and very wide ranging genus, with only one species in the 
United States separated into two races. 
Key of THE SPECIES. 
A. Above slaty-blue, marked with slaty-grey below. 
A. atricapillus, p. 171. 
B. Above darker, almost sooty; below markings darker and 
heavier. A. a. striatulus, p. 173. 
American Goshawk. Astur atricapillus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 334—Colorado Records—Ridgway 73, p. 186; 
Drew 81, p. 141; 85, p. 17; Morrison 89, p. 7; Osburn 93, p. 212; 
Lowe 94, p. 267; Cooke 97, pp. 74, 204; Henderson 03, p. 107; 09, 
