April 13, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
57i 
IK' 
Ww&Ww 
Goshawk and Its Ways 
By Manly Hardy 
Maine’s Veteran Field. Naturalist, Trapper, Trader and Traveler. 
While looking at Audubon’s beautiful pic¬ 
tures of goshawks in your recent issue. I thought 
that some of your readers might like to hear 
more of these hawks which, though not un¬ 
common in Maine, are very rare in most States. 
With us it is very rare to see one in summer, 
but we usually have a few every fall and winter. 
This winter is an exception to all previous 
records; we have had more than we usually have 
I in a dozen winters. Some weeks ago the 
Crosby Company, of Bangor, had mounted over 
thirty, and certainly not one-fourth of those 
shot are brought in to be mounted. They are 
both the shyest and the boldest of our hawks. 
It is almost impossible to creep to one when 
he is on the watch, yet they will dash into a 
dooryard and kill a hen, caring nothing how 
many people are close by. I have known one 
to dash through an open door into a house in 
pursuit of a hen which took refuge there in try¬ 
ing to escape. As fair examples of their bold¬ 
ness, lately one came right into the middle of 
our city and took a dove from the sidewalk 
within a few feet of a house, and another took 
a hen in a dooryard and allowed himself to be 
taken in the hands of a. woman who owned the 
hen; he put up a strong fight before he was 
killed. A few days ago one was brought to 
me which killed two large Plymouth Rock hens 
before a gun could be brought. In this, as in 
many cases, the bird was killing more than he 
needed just for the sport of killing. I have 
known one to kill five ruffed grouse and tear 
them in pieces, leaving them uneaten. 
I have never known a goshawk to try to kill 
anything smaller than a dove—that is, a do¬ 
mestic pigeon—except occasionally when they 
took half-grown chickens. They usually con¬ 
fine their diet to poultry, ruffed grouse and 
hares. In several cases I have known them 
shot when they either had seized or were in 
the act of seizing dogs which were in the pur¬ 
suit of hares. A ruffed grouse has no possible 
chance of escape, as they easily overtake them 
on the wing. The only case I ever knew of one 
escaping was where one was close to a pasture 
where a fence joined a blacksmith shop. As the 
partridge passed just over the top rail, he 
dropped to the ground and the hawk swept over 
him. The blacksmith was in his doorway, and 
before the hawk could wheel back he ran out 
and took the partridge into his shop. He told 
me that the partridge stayed in the shop a long 
time before he dared fly into the woods which 
were just across the road. 
Goshawks very rarely nest in Maine. The 
only instance I know was on land of mine, an 
account of which may be found in Major 
Charles E. Bendire’s work, “The Life Histories 
of North American Birds,” page 199. I feel 
sure that these birds nested there many years 
and that they remated several times, as I know 
of ten or twelve adults and young being taken 
in that vicinity within a range of a few miles. 
I feel sure that when one adult was shot the 
survivor remated and continued to occupy the 
old nest. When the old female was shot from 
the original nest and the young one was taken, 
I know surely that the male got a female, a 
brown bird of the year before, and they built 
a new nest a hundred yards or so from the 
other. A singular circumstance was that al¬ 
though these birds harried the country for years 
for miles around, in no case did I ever know 
of their disturbing poultry near their nest, al¬ 
though there was plenty within a quarter of a 
mile. They always foraged from a mile to 
three miles from their nest and lived there for 
many years within less than one hundred and 
fifty yards of a house before their nest was 
found. There was no sign of fur or feathers 
near either nest, although one had been oc¬ 
cupied for many years; from which I incline to 
the opinion that they fed their young by regur¬ 
gitation. 
I know no bird which passes through so 
many changes of plumage and color of eyes as 
the goshawk. A young one which I have 
mounted is about the size of a small hen and 
is covered with white down; his eyes are pale 
blue. I colored the eyes exactly from life. 
When fully grown, the first plumage is dark 
brown above and the eyes are pale yellow. No 
one would be likely to suspect this being a 
goshawk who had seen only adult birds. Later 
it changes to the dark slaty blue of the adult 
and the eye, after passing through all the in¬ 
termediate changes in color from straw-yellow, 
orange-yellow and pink, finally assumes the 
deep rich red of the adult. I know no other 
hawk so handsome as the goshawk. 
I have seen them feeding on their prey on the 
ground, but have never seen them carry any¬ 
thing into a tree to eat it. Unlike the Cooper’s 
and sharp-shinned hawks, they rarely visit the 
same farmyard a second time unless at long 
intervals. In beauty, strength, swiftness and 
courage, I think they are the peer of any hawk 
in North America. 
The Quill of a Porcupine. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Most readers of Forest and Stream have felt 
the quill of a porcupine and seen the effects of 
it, but comparatively few, I find, have really 
seen one. Through the courtesy of the Geologi¬ 
cal Survey at Ottawa, I recently had the oppor¬ 
tunity to make the inclosed enlarged drawing 
of a representative quill. The specimen was 
taken from the back of a stuffed porcupine (£. 
dorsatus). I expected to find those of the tail 
more highly specialized, but was disappointed. 
Examples from head, back and tail differed 
chiefly in size. 
The drawing is a sixteen diameter magnifica¬ 
tion. The extreme point is polished and keen; 
speedily the barbs begin to show. I reckon that 
there is a round thousand on this specimen. 
They die away on the shoulder of the quill. 
When soaked in warm water they stick out much 
more, so we may believe that they also flare out 
when in the warm flesh of the victim. The bar¬ 
rel was smooth and highly polished. The bulb 
presented no special features. 
Ernest Thompson Seton. 
The Pekan or Fisher. 
In the Forest and Stream of Feb. 9 I have 
read the article written by H. de Puyjalon on the 
pekan or fisher. Mr. de Puyjalon appears to me 
to have attempted writing upon a subject in 
which he was very little versed and with no data 
upon which to base his assertions. As a matter 
of fact, prior to about the year i860, the fisher 
or pekan was an animal unknown to the trappers 
on the north shore and Labrador, east of the 
Saguenay, and it was only after that year that 
an odd one was trapped in that lower country. 
QUILL FROM THE BACK OF A CANADA PORCUPINE, MAGNIFIED SIXTEEN DIAMETERS. 
A, the point; B, the bulb or point in the porcupine’s skin. 
