THE GOSHAWK. 
97 
arrow, when the Blackbirds rushed together so closely that the flock looked 
like a dusky ball passing through the air. On reaching the mass, he, with 
the greatest ease, seized first one, then another, and another, giving each a 
squeeze with his talons, and suffering it to drop upon the water. In this 
manner, he had procured four or five before the poor birds reached the 
woods, into which they instantly plunged, when he gave up the chase, swept 
over the water in graceful curves, and picked up the fruits of his industry, 
carrying each bird singly to the shore. Reader, is this instinct or reason ? 
The nest of the Goshawk is placed on the branches of a tree, near the 
trunk or main stem. It is of great size, and resembles that of our Crow, or 
some species of Owl, being constructed of withered twigs and coarse grass, 
with a lining of fibrous strips of plants resembling hemp. It is, however, 
much flatter than that of the Crow. In one I found, in the month of April, 
three eggs, ready to be hatched; they were of a dull bluish-white, sparingly 
spotted with light reddish : brown. In another, which I found placed on a 
pine tree, growing on the eastern rocky bank of the Niagara river, a few 
miles below the Great Cataract, the lining was formed of withered herba- 
ceous plants, with a few feathers, and the eggs were four in number, of a 
white colour, tinged with greenish-blue, large, much rounded, and some- 
what granulated. In another nest were four young birds, covered with 
buff-coloured down, their legs and feet of a pale yellowish flesh colour, the 
bill light blue, and the. eyes pale grey. They differed greatly in size, one 
being quite small compared with the rest. I am of opinion that few breed 
to the south of the State of Maine. 
The variations of the plumage exhibited by the Goshawk are numerous. 
I have seen some with horizontal bars, of a large size, on the breast, and 
blotches of white on the back and shoulders, while others had the first of 
these parts covered with delicate transverse lines, the shaft of each feather 
being brown or black, and were of a plain cinereous tint above. The young, 
which at first have but few scattered dashes of brown beneath, are at times 
thickly mottled with that, and each feather of the back and wings is broadly 
edged with dull white. 
My opinion respecting the identity of the American Goshawk and that of 
Europe, is still precisely the same as it was some years ago, when I wrote 
a paper on the subject, which was published in the Edinburgh Journal of 
Natural and Geographical Science. I regret differing on this point from 
such. Ornithologists as Charles Bonaparte and M. Temhinok ; but, after 
due consideration, I cannot help thinking these birds the same. 
The figure of the adult was drawn at Henderson, in Kentucky, many 
years ago. That of the young bird was taken from a specimen shot in the 
Great Pine Forest in Pennsylvania. 
Vol. I. 15 
