156 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
also a remarkable aeronaut, and it is not surprising to find it on occa¬ 
sion far from its breeding grounds. 
In eastern Kansas Doctor Wetmore found a flock of a dozen feeding 
on cicadas. As he describes it—“They hunted back and forth in long 
circles, soaring and turning, hardly ever getting very far from the earth. 
Occasionally one swooped down over the brush, and captured an 
insect, and sailed off eating it while flying. We never saw the birds in 
trees during our whole stay, but always on tin wing” (1909, p. 157). 
HAWKS: Subfamily Accipitrume 
“The Accipitrine Hawks are woodland birds that beat about the 
tree tops or along the edges of the woods; they do not habitually soar 
high in the open. They take their prey surprise and quick attack 
rather than by open pursuit” (Taverner). 
WESTERN GOSHAWK: Astur atricapfllus striatulatus Ridgw&y 
Plates 9 and 10 
Description. — Male: Length 22 inches, wing 12-13 2. »ail 9.5 *0 r,. r.u <;s 2.7- 
3.5. Female: Length24.5 inches, wing 13.5 -14.2. tail It.5 -12 7 <>?/ >•: • > 
half way down in front. Adults: Vpperparia dark bln-leh gray. , 
sooty blackish with black shaft streaks; top of head blackish, a widish stripe er **i- 
eipdy n black stripe over the cam and occiput with bases of fealhei-s cottony white; 
wit gs bared, wing linings reddish white, spotted with rufous, tinder surface of quills 
mainh 1 .a/rej; underpaid* whitish covered with very finely and densely penciled gray 
zigzags giving effect of bluish gray surface, marked with black shaft streaks; iris red 
in male, brownish orange in female; bill dark bluish, cere and feet yellow. Young: 
Upperparts brownish black, with huffy and rusty streakings and edgings; underparts 
with broad black-streaks, the thighs with cordate spots; underside of wings and tail 
barreii; iris yellow, bill brownish, cere and feet duller yellow. 
Comparisons. —The three injurious” sh.ir? j : lor.£-!eggr-l, hawks grade 
in : * run* the Sharp-shinned U> the God< . . . »i «rg Vmalw can not 
surely be distinguished by measurements, tb* • • • • : . ; - < , * the- greater 
feathering of the leg (over instead of under nu-iadf •.< d. w^ ^ . r .-vi -batp- 
shinned), while the Cooper can be recognized by i?* r:-u:i -3 
by its square (even or slightly emarginate) tail (S«-e Piute j ’ • 
Range.—B reeds from Cook Inlet, Alaska, south to Sierra .\>vad* in latitude 
36° 30', and through Rocky Mountains to northwestern Mexico; winters southward in 
California and east to Colorado. 
State Records.—A male Western Goshawk was collected at Tres Piedras July 
13, 1892 (Loring), and one was identified late in July, 1905, near Agua Fria in the 
Zuni Mountains (Hollister). It is not certain that either of these birds had nested in 
New Mexico for this species nests early and the young would normally have been 
fledged before the first of June. iThcy probably nest in the high mountains tv^: of 
Taos. On April 19, 1919. one was seen at the G. O. S. Ranch about 35 miles »e»Mi • d 
of Silver City, at about 7,500 feet (Ligon).] 
In early fall the species becomes not uncommon in the mountains of Hu i hem 
half of the State and ranges south to the Sacrament^ Mountains Clnudcroft 
September 0, 1902 (Bailey) -the San Mateo Mountains near Laguna •• •,:< .! 17, 
1905 (Hollister); [Black Range, 15 miles northwest of Pinos Altos, September1918 
(Ligon); Silver City (20 miles east), specimens taken November 2, 1917 K**liogg)|, 
