ASH- COL URED OR BLA CRT- CAP HA WK. 289 



the same. The individual from which the drawing was made 

 is faithfully represented in the plate, reduced to one half its 

 natural dimensions. This bird was shot within a few miles 

 of Philadelphia, and is now preserved, in good order, in Mr 

 Peale's Museum. 



Its general make and aspect denotes great strength and 

 spirit ; its legs are strong, and its claws of more than propor- 

 tionate size. Should any other specimen or variety of this 

 hawk, differing from the present, occur during the publication 

 of this work, it will enable me more accurately to designate 

 the species. 



The black-cap hawk is twenty-one inches in length ; the 

 bill and cere are blue ; eye, reddish amber ; crown, black, 

 bordered on each side by a line of white finely specked with 

 black ; these lines of white meet on the hind head ; whole 

 upper parts, slate, tinged with brown, slightest on the quills ; 

 legs, feathered half way down, and, with the feet, of a yellow 

 colour ; whole lower parts and femorals, white, most elegantly 

 speckled with fine transverse pencilled zigzag lines of dusky, 

 all the shafts being a long black line ; vent, pure white. 



If this be not the celebrated goshawk, formerly so much 

 esteemed in falconry, it is very closely allied to it. I have 

 never myself seen a specimen of that bird in Europe, and the 

 descriptions of their best naturalists vary considerably ; but, 

 from a careful examination of the figure and account of the 

 goshawk, given by the ingenious Mr Bewick (Brit. Birds, vol. 

 i. p. 65), I have very little doubt that the present will be 

 found to be the same. 



The goshawk inhabits France and Germany ; is not very 

 common in South Britain, but more frequent in the northern 



most conspicuously necessary. When perched at rest, the position is 

 unusually erect ; so much, that the line of the back and tail is almost 

 perpendicular. The plumage in the adults is often of a dark leaden 

 colour above, with bars and crosses on the under parts ; in the young, 

 the upper surface assumes different shades of brown, while the mark- 

 ings beneath are longitudinal. — Ed. 



VOL. II. T 



