GOSHAWK. 113 



it is found throughout Siberia up to the limit of forest growth, Asia Minor, 

 North Palestine, Persia, Turkestan, the Himalayas, Mongolia, and North 

 China. In India it is occasionally seen on the plains during the cold 

 season. 



The Goshawk is a giant Sparrow-Hawk. In spite of his comparatively 

 shoi't wings, he is a bird of very powerful flight and of ixndaunted courage. 

 He disdains to eat carrion, and will scarcely stoop to catch a sitting bird. 

 He hunts on the wing, and nothing is safe from his attacks, from a Sparrow 

 to a Grouse, or from a mouse to a young roe. The Goshawk has the 

 reputation of being a very bloodthirsty bird, killing more game than he 

 can possibly eat. This bird is essentially a forest one, and in summer 

 confines himself principally to the woods and the open places in their im- 

 mediate neighbourhood ; but late in atitumn and winter he extends the 

 range of his hunting-grounds, pursuing Partridges and hares, and 

 making raids on the pigeons belonging to the farmers, and sometimes 

 snatching the game from under the very nose of the sportsman. The Gos- 

 hawk, however, is a Haiuk, and not a Falcon ; and his powers of flight are 

 not sufficient to enable him to fly down a bird when it has fairly got under 

 weigh ; consequently he resorts to artifice, stealing upon his prey from 

 behind some cover, and dashing upon it unawares. Naumann describes 

 the alarm-note as a shrill keerk-keerk-kecrk, very similar to that of the 

 Sparrow-Hawk; and besides this he has a call-note, a deep gyukgyak-gyak, 

 much resembling a similar note of the Peregrine. 



The Goshawk very seldom perches on the ground or on a stone, or on 

 the topmost twig of a tree. Its favourite food is pigeons and ducks. 



Where the Goshawk is a resident bird, it is a very early breeder, the 

 eggs being laid in the second half of April or the first half of May. It 

 generally selects a lofty beech for the situation of its nest^ which is usually 

 placed at some considerable elevation from the ground in one of the main 

 forks. It also breeds in oaks and pine trees ; and, even when systematically 

 robbed, it will breed year after year in the same nest. On the 7th of May 

 last, Herr Kroll showed me a nest in an oak tree from which he had taken 

 eggs nearly every year for the last eighteen years. Early in June I saw 

 several nests in Pomerania, from one of which the bird flew ofl'. One 

 of these was built in the fork of a beech tree 75 feet from the ground, 

 and was an enormous structure, measuring at least four feet by two. It 

 builds a deeper nest than the Eagles or the Buzzards, and lines it with fine 

 twigs, roots, moss, and lichens, but not green leaves. The largest nests 

 are most probably the oldest, and have been added to year after year. All 

 the nests I saw were in the forests, but not at any great distance from the 

 outskirts. The statement that this bird sometimes builds on rocks should 

 be received with great caution. The usual number of eggs is four; but it 

 occasionally lays three, and sometimes five. They are very pale bluish 



