152 
FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 
His small size is so much more than compensated by his audacity 
that one bird often becomes the terror of a poultry yard, taking the 
small and half-grown chickens regularly and sometimes killing and 
eating a full-grown hen of many times its own weight. 
Vernon Bailey. 
333. Accipiter cooperii ( Bonap .). Cooper Hawk. 
Adult male. — Under parts white, heavily spotted and barred with red¬ 
dish brown; top of head black contrasted with 
bluish gray of back ; tail rounded , with 3 or 4 
black bands and narrow white tip. Adult 
female: upper parts duller and less bluish 
than in male ; top of head more brown¬ 
ish black; hind neck and sides of head 
washed with dull rusty. Young: upper 
parts dark brown, with rusty edgings and 
suggestion of white spotting; under parts 
streaked vertically. Male : length 14-17, 
wing 8.85-9.40, tail 7.80-8.30. Female: 
length 18-20, wing 10.10-11.00, tail 9.00- 
10.50. 
Distribution. — Breeds throughout the 
United States and southern British Pro¬ 
vinces, wintering regularly from about lati¬ 
tude 40° southward to southern Mexico, 
though occasionally staying in southern 
Canada. 
Nest .—In trees, 20 to 50 feet from the 
ground, often a remodeled one of other 
hawks, crows, or squirrels, bulky, made of 
large sticks and lined with rough outer 
bark. Eggs: usually 4 or 5, pale bluish 
white to greenish white, unspotted or faintly and irregularly scrawled 
with brown or pale buffy. 
Food. — Almost entirely wild birds and poultry, but occasionally small 
mammals, reptiles, batrachians, and insects. 
“Cooper’s hawk, which resembles the sharp-shinned hawk closely in 
everything except size, is less northern in its distribution. . . . The 
food of this hawk, like that of its smaller congener, consists almost 
entirely of wild birds and poultry, though from its superior size and 
strength it is able to cope successfully with much larger birds, and 
hence is much more to be dreaded. . . . The flight of this species 
is very rapid, irregular, and usually is carried at no great height 
from the ground, in all these particulars closely resembling that of 
the sharp-shinned hawk.” (Fisher.) 
Subgenus Astur. 
Length over 20 ; tarsus feathered for about one half its length. 
334. Accipiter atricapillus (IFz7s.). American Goshawk. 
Bare portion of leg in front shorter than middle toe; wing more than 
