HAWKS, EAGLES, KITES: SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 157 
where two were known to winter (Hunn); and even to the lower part of the Gila 
Valley where one was seen near Alma October 15, 1906 (Bailey). One was seen near 
Las Vegas January 9, March 7, and March 27, 1898 (Mitchell). [One or two were 
also seen on the Rio Grande Bird Reserve, November 28-December 9 1916 (Willett) 1 
— W. W. Cooke. ’ y,J 
Nest. In high trees made of sticks lined with juniper or other bark, grass tree 
moss, weed stalks, and pine needles. Eggs: 3 to 5, bluish white, unspotted. 
Food.— Largely birds, including poultry and game birds. Also rock squirrels. 
General Habits. The Goshawk, the largest of the three destruc¬ 
tive hawks, kills poultiy and small game of all kinds, and breeds in 
suitable localities where food is plenty. “During spring and summer,” 
Major Bendire said, “it is seldom seen in the more open districts, 
though it is abundant enough later on, when the heavy snows drive the 
game into the foothills and lower valleys” (1892, p. 199). 
In September and October, Mr. Ligon reported of the Western 
Goshawk, “these grouse exterminators occur in the mountains.” In 
the high mountains east of Taos, he has found them very destructive to 
the game. In the Black Range he saw “a fine specimen carrying a rock 
squirrel”; and finding the remains of some Band-tailed Pigeons, sur¬ 
mised that the Goshawks were the guilty ones (MS). 
In ordinary years the game birds suffer enough from these 
predatory birds, but as Doctor Wetmore states in his interesting book on 
the Migrations of Birds, from the north “at irregular intervals come 
great flights of Goshawks that spread across the entire northern half 
of the United States and penetrate south to California and New Mexico.” 
These periodic invasions of Goshawks and Snowy Owls seem to come 
during years when epidemics have destroyed the northern hares upon 
which they feed (1926a, pp. 94-96). 
Additional Literature.—Brewster, William, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
Harvard College, LXVI, 321-324, 1925.— Cameron, E. S., Auk, XXIV, 260-262, 
and Plate X, 1907.— Sutton, G. M., Wilson Bull., XXXVII, 193-199, 1925.— 
Thayer, G. H., Concealing-Coloration of Animals, 80-81, 1909. 
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK: Accfpiter velox (Wilson) 
Plates 9 and 10 
Description. — Male: Length 10-11.5 inches, wing 6.1—7.1, tail 5.8-6.1, tarsus 
1.9-2. Female: Length 12.5-14 inches, wing 7.8-S.8, tail 6.6-S.2. Head small, 
wing short, rounded tail and legs long , leg feathered a third of the way down in front , 
wings with three to five outer quills cut out on inner webs, tail square cornered. 
Adults: Upperparts (including wings) bluish gray, occipital feathers snow-white under 
surface, tail w r ith three or four narrow blackish bands, and narrow white tip; under¬ 
parts white, heavily cross-barred or spotted with reddish brown; wing linings white, 
with dusky spots; flight feathers and axillars barred; iris varying with age from yellow 
to red; bill dark, cere, legs, and feet yellow or greenish. Young in juvenal plumage: 
Above brown, varied with rusty and white; below whitish, streaked vertically with 
reddish brown. 
