falconim:. 39 



[12.] 1. Accipiter (Astur) palumbarius. The Goshawk. 



Genus. Accipiter. Antio.. Sub-genus. Astur. Bechstein. 



Goshawk. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 204, No. 99. Young male. 



Gentil Falcon. Idem, ii., p. 203, No. 98 ? American female. 



Falco palumbarius. Lath. Tnd., i., p. 29, sp. 65. Male. 



Falco gentilis. Idem, i., p. 29, sp. 66 ? * Female or young. 



Ash-coloured or Black-capped Hawk. (F. atricapillus.) Wilson, vi., p. 80, pi. 52, f. 3. 



Falco palumbarius. Sabine. Fremiti. Joum., p. 670. Bonap. Syn., p. 28, No. 12. 



Plate xxvi. Male. 



The Hawks are allied to the true Falcons by their habits of taking their prey on 

 the wing-, feeding on warm-blooded animals, and rejecting carrion ; but differ 

 from them in attacking their prey sideways, or obliquely, and near the earth, 

 instead of soaring aloft and pouncing down upon it. They are characterized by 

 the shortness of their wings, which reach no further than two-thirds down the tail. 

 Their bills are curved from the base, but, being less convex on the sides, are not 

 so strong nor so compact as those of the true Falcons ; and they have a larger 

 cere, and nostrils of a different form. They likewise want the notch on the lower 

 mandible, and the corresponding tooth on the upper one ; having, in place of 

 the latter, an obtuse lobe, or festoon of the margin, situated farther back than 

 the tooth usually is. 



The Goshawk of the Old World was held in great esteem while falconry con- 

 tinued to be cultivated, and was flown at crows, geese, pheasants, and partridges. 

 Colonel Thornton thus describes its mode of attack : — " The Goshawk flies at the 

 bolt, the female being excellent for hares, rabbits, herons, and wild ducks, and 

 the tercel for game. It takes its prey near the ground (for it cannot mount), and 

 has great speed for a short distance. If its game take refuge, there it waits 

 patiently on a tree or a stone, until the game, pressed by hunger, is induced to 

 move ; and as the Hawk is capable of greater abstinence, it generally succeeds in 

 taking it." " I flew a Goshawk," says the Colonel, " at a Pheasant, which got 

 into cover, and we lost the Hawk ; at ten next morning the falconer found her, 

 and just as he had lifted her, the Pheasant ran, and rosef." 



* The Prince of Musignano observes, that the Falco gentilis of Linnaeus, though by most authors considered to be 

 the young of the Goshawk, corresponds also with his F. Cooperii in description, that bird having similar plumage to 

 the young Goshawk. 



f Montagu, Om. Diet., Suppl., Art. Hawk-Gos^ 



