AMERICAN GOSHAWK. 
BLUE HEN HAWK. 
Accipiter atricapillus. 
Char. Above, dark bluish gray ; lop of head black, the feathers be- 
neath the surface white ; white stripe over the eye ; tail with four dark 
bands ; below, white barred and streaked with narrow dark lines. Young 
very different ; above, brown, edges of feathers huffish ; tail lighter, tipped 
with white and crossed by four or five dark bands ; below, huffish, streaked 
with brown. Length 22 to 24 inches. 
A^est. In a tree ; made of twigs, 
3“4 ; bluish white, with buff or reddish brown markings ; 2,30 
X 1.75. 
The foreign representative of this elegant and spirited spe- 
cies of Hawk appears to be common in France, Germany, the 
northern parts of Great Britain, Russia, and Siberia, and ex- 
tends into Chinese Tartary. Our species, so nearly related to 
the European bird, is very rare, migrating to the South ap- 
parently at the approach of winter. On the 26th of October, 
1830, I received one of these birds from the proprietor of 
