6 
COOPER’S HAWK. 
They are eminently distinguished from all other Falcons by their 
short wings, not reaching by a considerable length to the tip of 
their tail, which is even, or but very slightly rounded; and by 
their first quill feather or primary, which is very short, while the 
fourth is constantly the longest. Their bill, suddenly curved from 
the base, is very strong and sharp; their head is narrowed before, 
with the eyes placed high, large, and fiery. Their feet are very 
long, and the toes especially, the middle one of which is much 
the longest, and all are armed with very strong sharp talons, well 
seconding the sanguinary nature of these fierce creatures; their 
outer toe is connected at base by a membrane to the middle one. 
The female is always one-third larger than the male, and the 
plumage of both, is, in most species, dark above and white beneath; 
in the adult barred with reddish or dusky. In the young bird the 
colour is lighter, the feathers skirted with ferruginous, and the 
white of the under parts streaked longitudinally with dusky, in¬ 
stead of being barred. The tail is uniform in colour with the 
back, with almost always a few broad bands of black, and some¬ 
times of white, and a whitish tip. 
The Hawks ( Jlstures ) combine cunning with agility and 
strength. Sudden and impetuous in their movements, they make 
great havock, especially among birds that keep in flocks, as 
Pigeons, Blackbirds, &c., and are the terror of the poultry-yard. 
Fearless and sanguinary, they never feed, even when pressed by 
hunger, except on red and warm-blooded animals, whose quiver¬ 
ing limbs they tear with savage delight. Birds they pluck very 
carefully, and quarter, before eating them, but swallow small 
quadrupeds entire, afterwards ejecting their skins rolled up into 
a ball. They always pursue and seize their prey upon the wing, 
not falling upon it from aloft, but rapidly skimming the earth, 
make their insidious approaches sideways, and singling out their 
victim, dart upon it with fatal velocity. They never soar, like the 
