40 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



The American Goshawk was considered by Pennant and Latham to be of the 

 same species with the European one ; the former author merely remarking', that 

 the American individuals that he had seen were of an unusually large size. 

 Wilson, who had never seen an European Goshawk, described an old male that 

 was shot near Philadelphia under the name of the " Black-cap Hawk, or Falco 

 atricapillus ;" observing-, however, that his specimen corresponded so nearly with 

 Bewick's description and figure of the Goshawk, that he had little doubt of their 

 being identical. The Prince of Musignano has reunited the Black-cap Hawk with 

 the Falco palumbarius ; but Baron Cuvier, while he considers the latter as a 

 typical specimen of his sub-genus Les autours, refers the American bird to another 

 sub-genus, Hierofalco. There is, indeed, much resemblance between the females 

 and young of the Goshawk and Jerfalcon ; and those who overlook the dif- 

 ferences in the scales of their tarsi and the relative lengths of their quill feathers, 

 might easily confound the one with the other. That this has been done occasion- 

 ally is very likely ; and Cuvier may possibly be right in referring the F. gyrfalco 

 of Gmelin to the F. palumbarius, although we have followed the majority of sys- 

 tematic writers in considering it to be the young of the F. islandicus. — R. 



We associate this bird with the sub-genus or section of Astur : for although 

 its approximation to the Buteo borealis is very decided, we shall not disturb the 

 present situations of these two birds, remote as they now are in our systems, until 

 the whole family undergoes a more accurate investigation. The bill, possessing 

 all the characters seen in B. borealis, is yet somewhat shorter, but the upper 

 mandible is less sinuated. These two species further agree in the length and 

 general construction of their feet, excepting that in the Accipiter palumbarius the 

 anterior scales partake of the smooth character more peculiar to the typical 

 Hawks. The toes, also, are rather longer, the claws somewhat more curved, and 

 the middle and outer toes are proportionably smaller than in B. borealis. It may 

 further be remarked, that the anterior transverse scales of the toes are more 

 numerous in this bird. The hind and inner claws are nearly of the same size, and 

 very strong. The wings short, and not adapted for strong flight. — Sw. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of an old male (No. 1), shot in company with the female at the nest, on the plains of the Saskatchewan, May 8, 1827. 



Colour. — The upper aspect of the head, the nape of the neck, cheeks, and sides of the 

 throat, are black, with the white bases of the feathers partially appearing. A white stripe, with 

 black shafts and raottlings, commences at the base of the bill, and, passing over the orbit, 

 widens as it proceeds backwards to the side of the neck. The dorsal aspect of the neck, 

 the back, the tail coverts, lesser wing coverts, and greater part of the secondaries, are bluish- 



