COOPER’S HAWK. 
369 
The second section, to which the present new species be- 
longs, possessing all its characters in a pre-eminent degree, 
equally with the hawk described by Wilson in its adult state 
as Falco Pennsylvanicus^ and in its youth as Falco velox, was 
established on the sparrow-hawk of Europe, Falco nisus^ but 
the American species just mentioned are no less typical. The 
hawks of this section are more elegantly shaped, being much 
more slender ; their wings are still shorter than in the other 
section, reaching little beyond the origin of the tail, and their 
tarsi slender and elongated, with a smooth and almost conti- 
nuous covering. 
Notwithstanding their smaller size and diminished strength, 
their superior courage and audacity, and the quickness of their 
movements, enable them to turn the flight of the largest birds, 
and even sometimes, when in captivity together, to overcome 
them. We have kept a sparrow-hawk, (Falco nisus,) which, 
in the space of twenty-four hours that he was left unobserved, 
killed three falcons which were confined with him. 
The inextricable confusion reigning throughout the works 
of authors who have not attended to the characters of the dif- 
ferent groups of this genus, renders it next to impossible to de- 
cide, with any degree of certainty, whether our Falco Cooperii 
has, or has not been recorded. Though agreeing imper- 
fectly with many, we have not been able, notwithstanding our 
most sedulous endeavours, to identify it with any. It is evi- 
dently a young bird, and we should not be surprised at its 
proving, when adult, a known species, perhaps one of the nu- 
merous species figured of late, and possibly Le Grand Epervier 
de Cayenne of Daudin, Sparvius major ^ Vieillot, stated to be 
one-third larger than the European sparrow-hawk. At all 
events, however, it is an acquisition to the ornithology of these 
States ; and we have ventured to consider it as a new species, 
and to impose on it the name of a scientific friend, William 
Cooper of N*ew York, to whose sound judgment, and liberality 
in communicating useful advice, the naturalists of this country 
VOL. III. 2 A 
