266 COOPER'S HAWREK. 
plains. Though generally observed alone, the male and his 
companion are seldom far apart. During the youth of their 
progeny, the parents keep them company, in order to teach 
them to hunt their prey, and at such times they are observed 
in families. 
This group may be further subdivided into two sections, 
to one of which the name of Astur has more strictly been 
assigned, while the other has been distinguished by those of 
Sparvius and Accipiter. The former, of which the goshawk of 
Kurope and North America (black-capped hawk of Wilson) is 
the type, is characterised by its wings being somewhat longer, 
body more robust and shorter, and much thicker tarsi. This 
is the only species that inhabits the United States and Europe. 
The second section, to which the present new species be- 
longs, possessing all its characters in a pre-eminent degree, 
equally with the hawk described by Wilson in its adult state 
as Falco Pennsylvanicus, and in its youth as Falco velox, was 
established on the sparrow-hawk of Europe, Falco nisus, but 
the American species just mentioned are no less typical. The 
hawks of this section are more elegantly shaped, being much 
more slender; their wings are still shorter than in the other 
section, reaching little beyond the origin of the tail, and their 
tarsi slender and elongated, with a smooth and almost con- 
tinuous covering. 
Notwithstanding their smaller size and diminished strength, 
their superior courage and audacity, and the quickness of their 
movements, enable them to turn the flight of the largest birds, 
and even sometimes, when in captivity together, to overcome 
them. We have kept a sparrow-hawk (alco nisus), which, 
in the space of twenty-four hours that he was left unobserved, 
killed three falcons which were confined with him. 
The inextricable confusion reigning throughout the works 
of authors who have not attended to the characters of the dif- 
ferent groups of this genus, renders it next to impossible to de- 
cide, with any degree of certainty, whether our Falco Cooperiz 
has or has not been recorded. Though agreeing imper- 


