84 
VERTEBRATA. 
THE GOSHAWK. 
color above dark grayish-brown ; beneatb ashy white. Its food consists of hares, rabbits, pigeons, 
pheasants, grouse, partridges, &c. It flies low, makes its nest in a high tree in the edges of 
forests, and lays three or four eggs in May. It was formerly trained to falconry. The Falcoyi. 
gentil of the writers on falconry, was probably the young of this species. It is common in all 
Northern Europe. 
Other foreign species are as follows: the Pied Goshawk, A. melanoleucus ; the Radiated 
Falcon, A. radiatus ; the One-banded Hawk, A. unicinctus ; the New Holland White Eagle, 
A, Novce Hollandice ; the Three-streak Hawk, A. trivirgatus; the Plumbeous Falcon, A. niti- 
dus ; the Gray-bellied Falcon, A. poliogaster ; the Spotted Falcon, A. leucorrhous ; and the 
Great- BILLED Falcon, A. magnirostris. 
The American Goshawk — the Black-cap Hawk of Wilson — A. atricapillus, which has been 
erroneously regarded as identical with the common goshawk of Europe, greatly resembles that 
bird, however, but it is of a lighter coloi", and the bands are narrower and more numerous. It is 
sparsely distributed in Northern and Eastern North America. 
Genus ACCIPITER : Accijoiter. — This term, from the Latin, signifying Hawk^ was used by 
LinnjBus as the title of the order which we call Raptoi'es ; as the name of a genus, Ave here apply 
it to the species of small hawks of which the European Sparrow-Hawk — the Epervier of the 
French — A. nisus, is the type. This bird, Avhich is to be distinguished from the American Spar- 
row-Hawk, noticed under the genus Falcon, resembles that bird, being about twelve inches 
iu length; dark brown above, reddish below, with numerous cross-bands of dark brown. It 
haunts wooded districts, and devours large numbers of small birds and small quadrupeds ; it is 
also a great depredator among the chickens of the poultry-yard. It was formerly used in falconry, 
especially for the hunting of land-rails. It frequently makes use of old nests, especially those of 
the crow, where it lays four or five eggs of a pale bluish-white, blotched and spotted with dark 
brown. It is common in Europe and Asia. 
Other foreign species are the Dwarf Falcon, A. minullus, ash-colored above, and white banded 
with brown below ; not larger than our robin, but exceedingly courageous, and contending suc- 
cessfully against crows and shrikes — found in Africa : the Tiny Falcon, A. tinus ; the Streaked 
Hawk, A. virgatus ; the Red-thighed Sparrow-Hawk, A, erythronemia ; the Speckled Spar- 
