122 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
the Sharp-shinned Hawk to pay occasional visits to towns and villages 
where he should be heartily welcomed for the destruction he causes 
among these feathered pests. 
The food of nineteen of these hawks which I have examined is given 
in the following table : 
No. 
Date. 
Locality. 
Food-Materials. 
1 
Sept. 7, 1878. . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Small bird (Melospiza). 
2 
Sept. 14, 1878, . . 
Chester county, Pa 
Quail. 
3 
Nov. 20. 1878. . . 
Newark, Delaware, . . . 
Chicken. 
4 
Feb. 17, 1879, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Snow bird (Junco). 
5 
May 3, 1879, . . 
Chester county. Pa., . . . 
Mice (Arvicola) . [mice. 
6 
Sept. 10. 1879, . . 
Chester county. Pa., . . . 
Sparrow {Passer domesticus) and portions of field- 
7 
May 30, 1880. . . 
Delaware county. Pa., . . 
Chicken. 
8 
June 2, 1880, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Chicken. 
9 
June 3, 1880. . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Chicken. 
10 
Aug. 23, 1881. . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Grasshoppers and beetles. 
11 
Oct. 16, 1881, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Quail. 
12 
Oct. 29, 1881, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Quail and fragments of beetles. 
13 
June 22, 1881, . . 
Lancaster county. Pa. , . 
Chicken. 
14 
Oct. — , 1881, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Meadow Lark {Sturnella). 
15 
Dec. 13, 1882, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Song Sparrow (Melospiza). 
16 
April 3, 1882, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Robin (Merula). 
IT 
Sept. 20, 1884, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Sparrow (Spizella pusilla). 
18 
Oct. 3, 1886, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Sparrow (Passer domesticus). 
19 
Nov. 26, 1886, . . 
Chester county. Pa 
Song Sparrow (M. fasciata). 
Accipiter cooperi (Bonap.). 
Cooper’s Hawk. 
Description {Plate 67). 
Length 18 to 20 inches ; extent about 36 ; tail about 8| ; male smaller. Immature 
birds have upper parts brownish, more or less spotted with white and reddish brown, 
tail barred and lower parts white with long brown spots. 
Habitat . — North America in general, south to southern Mexico. 
This much detested and commonly called “Long-tailed Chicken or 
Pheasant Hawk,” is a common native ; it is resident, but is not near so 
plentiful during the winter months as throughout the late spring, sum- 
mer and early autumn. 
For impudent daring this species, without doubt, ranks preeminent 
among the raptorial genera. Almost every farmer or poultry raiser can 
reiterate instances of where he or she was the victim of pillage by this 
bold and audacious marauder. In the spring of 1878 a friend presented 
me with a Cooper’s Hawk which he had caught in a steel trap, but not 
until he and his-mate had destroyed some fifty young chickens. Dur- 
ing one day they killed twelve. “ This marauder sometimes attacks 
birds far superior to itself in weight, and sometimes possessed of a cour- 
age and strength equal to its own. As I was one morning observing 
the motions of some Parakeets, near Bayou Sara, in Louisiana, in the 
month of November, I heard a cock crowing not far from me and in 
sight of a farm house. The hawk next moment flew past me, and so 
close that I might have touched it with the barrel of my gun had I been 
prepared. Not more than a few seconds elapsed before I heard the cack- 
ling of the hens and the war cry of the cock, and at the same time ob- 
