372 
COOPER’S HAWK. 
regularly crossed by blackish bands, less conspicuous above ; 
the space between the bands is white on the inner vanes at 
base ; some of the secondaries and tertials are tipped and edged 
with rusty, and have more and more of white as they approach 
the body, so that those nearest may in fact be described as 
white banded with blackish. The first primary is very short, 
more so than the secondaries ; the second is equal to the sixth, 
the third to the fifth, these two last mentioned being hardly 
shorter than the fourth, which, as in all Astures, is longest. 
The tail is full eight inches long, reaching five beyond the 
wings ; its colour is ashy brown, much paler beneath, tipped 
with w^hitish, and crossed by four equidistant blackish bands, 
nearly one inch in breadth ; the tail-coverts at their very base 
are whitish ; the lateral feathers are lighter, and with some 
white on the inner webs. The legs and feet are yellow, slen- 
der, and elongated, but still do not reach, when extended, to 
the tip of the tail ; the tarsus, feathered in front for a short 
space, is two and three quarter inches long ; as in other Astures, 
the middle toe is much the longest, and the inner, without the 
nail, is shorter than the outer, but taken with its much longer 
nail, is longer. The talons are black, and extremely sharp, 
the inner and the hind ones subequal, and much the largest, 
while the outer is the most delicate. 
The female is larger, and measures two inches more in 
length, but in plumage is perfectly similar to the male. As 
the male we have described and figured is evidently a young 
bird, it is very probable that the adult, after undergoing the 
changes usual in this group, obtains a much darker and more 
uniform plumage above, and is beneath lineated transversely 
with reddish. That in this supposed plumage, the bird has 
not yet been found, is no reason to doubt its existence, as the 
species is comparatively rare. Even of the common Falco 
fascus^ though constantly receiving numerous specimens of the 
young, we have only been able to procure a single one in 
adult plumage during a period of four years. 
We regret that this is all that is in our power to offer of the 
