HAWKS OP THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE PROVINCES. 
5 
diurnal hunter, it seems that most of the blame falls rightfully on the 
Goshawk. -it- i 
The adult Goshawk (Plate I B) is easily recognized. It is a large 
hawk (length 22 inches), slate grey all over, vermiculated across the 
breast with many fine, dark zigzag lines. The young of the year is more 
difficult to recognize and resembles several other species in general style 
of coloration. All the accipiters in this plumage are very similar and 
are most easily separated from each other by size. They are brown 
above, nearly white below, with many narrow, sharp, dark stripes , 
beginning at the throat and covering all the underparts. There are 
several light bars across the tail and numerous finer ones displayed 
on the underside of the spread wing. Several other hawks of entirely 
different economic status have a similar juvenile pattern, but in no 
common hawk are the stripings below as sharp, regular, and evenly 
distributed as in these species. 
The Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks (Hate II A) though 
similar to the Goshawk in the younger stages are different when adult, but 
are so much like each other as to be scarcely separable by plumage 
characters. The old birds are dull slate blue above and white below, 
with the breast and flanks heavily barred with narrow, wavy lines 
of dull reddish. These two when adult and all three in juvenility are 
most easily told apart by size. The Sharp-shinned is very little larger 
than a robin in actual size (length 1 1 \ hU inches) though looking some- 
what larger in life owing to large wings and tail. The Goshawk is some- 
what larger than a crow (length 22-24 inches) and the Cooper s Hawk 
(length 151-19 inches) is intermediate between the Goshawk and trie 
Sharp-shinned. As the females of all the hawks are larger than the 
males a large female of a small species may be almost as large as a small 
male of the next larger one. However, all three are equally obnoxious 
in proportion to their size and little mistake can be made m killing any 
of them. 
BUTEOS AND ROUGH-LEGS. 
The Buteos, Buzzards, or Sluggard Hawks, and the Rough-legs 
represented by four species, the Red-tailed, Swamson’s, American 
Rough-legged, and Ferruginous Rough-legged Hawks— are all hawks 
of the largest size and have with very little reason been blamed for the 
destruction caused by the accipiters. They are birds of the open an 
are aften seen sailing high in the air where their rounded wings and 
broad spread tails make them usually quite recognizable as a class. 
When hunting they come lower down, sailing and leisurely flapping over 
1 Stripes run lengthwise oE the body; bars run across it. 
