THE GOS-HAWKS. 
137 
which these two genera of birds can be told apart. The Gos- 
Hawks, as we have already said, arc stouter and heavier birds 
than the Sparrow-Hawks, and these features are especially 
evidenced by their large bills and feet. Thus a Gos-Hawk’s 
bill is much longer in proportion to the size of its head, and 
the middle toe is shorter, whereas in the Sparrow-Hawks the 
middle toe is very long, and the bill is comparatively small. 
Taking, therefore, the length of the ridge of the bill from the 
cere to the tip, we find that its dimensions go more than twice 
into the length of the middle toe in a Sparrow-Hawk, but 
little more than one and a half times in a Gos-Hawk. Other- 
wise the two genera are very closely assimilated, and all the 
members are remarkable for their short wings, in direct contrast 
to the long wings of the True Falcons. 
The Gos-Hawks are nearly cosmopolitan in their range, 
being found in nearly every part of America from north to 
south, and all over the Old Woild, even to the Oceanic 
Islands, 
I. THE COMMON GOS-HAWK. ASTUR PALUMIiARlUS. 
Falco palumbarms, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 130 (1760). 
Acdpiier palumbarius, Macgill. Brit. B. iii. p. 340 (1840) ; Seeb. 
Brit. B. i. p. 142 (1883). 
Astur palumbarius, Newt. ed. Yarn Br. B. i. p. 83 (1871); 
Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i. p. 95 (1874); Dresser, B. 
Eur. v. p. 587, pi. 354 (1875) i O- U. List Br. B. p. 97 
(1883); Saunders, Man. Br. B. p. 321 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. 
Fig. Br. B. part xi.x. (1891). 
Adult Male.— General colour above ashy-brown] quills brown, 
barred with darker brown, the under surface of the wing ashy- 
grey, inclining to white near the base of the quills, with dark 
brown cross-bars, which become obsolete on the inner quills ; 
tail ashy-brown, tipped with white, and crossed with four broad 
bands of dark brown ; upper tail-coverts ashy-brown, with 
white tips ; crown of head, ear-coverts, and sides of neck 
blackish; the hind-neck slightly mottled with white; lores, 
cheeks, and a line above the ear-coverts white, streaked with 
blackish ; under surface of body white, with black shaft-stripes 
on the feathers of the throat and breast ; the entire under sur- 
