[12.] 1. A c c i p i t j e r ( A s t u r ) p a l u m b a r i u s . The Goshawk.
Ge n u s . Accipiter. A n t io . Sub-genus. Astur. B e c h s t e in .
Goshawk. P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 204, No. 99. Young male.
Gentil Falcon. I d e m , ii., p. 203, No. 98 ? American female.
Falco palumbarius. L a t h . Ind., i., p. 29, sp. 65. Male.
Falco gentilis. I d e m , i., p. 29, sp. 66 ? * Female or young.
Ash-coloured or Black-capped Hawk. (F. atricapillus.) W il s o n , vi., p. 80, pi. 52, f. 3.
Falco palumbarius. Sa b in e . Frankl. Joum., p. 670. B o n a p. Syn., p. 28, No. 12.
P late xxvi. M ale.
The Hawks are allied to the true Falcons by their habits of taking their prey on
the wing,, feeding on warm-blooded animals, and rejecting carrion ; but differ
from them in attacking their prey sideways, or obliquely, and near the earth,
instead of soaring aloft and pouncing down upon it. They are characterized by
the shortness of their wings, which reach no further than two-thirds down the tail.
Their bills are curved from the base, but, being less convex on the sides, are not
so strong nor so compact as those of the true Falcons ; and they have a larger
cere, and nostrils of a different form. They likewise want the notch on the lower
mandible, and the corresponding tooth on the upper one; having, in place of
the latter, an obtuse lobe, or festoon of the margin, situated farther back than
the Tthoeo tGh ousshuaawllky ios.f the Old World was held in great esteem while falconry continued
to be cultivated, and was flown at crows, geese, pheasants, and partridges.
Colonel Thornton thus describes its mode of attack:—“ The Goshawk flies at the
boll, the female being excellent for hares, rabbits, herons, and wild ducks, and
the tercel for game. It takes its prey near the ground (for it cannot mount), and
has great speed for a short distance. If its game take refuge, there it waits
patiently on a tree or a stone, until the game, pressed by hunger> is induced to
move; and as the Hawk is capable of greater abstinence, it generally succeeds in
bating it.” | I flew a Goshawk,” says the Colonel, j at a Pheasant, which got
into cover, and we lost the Hawk ; at ten next morning the falconer found her,
and just as he had lifted her, the Pheasant ran, and rosef.”
* The Prince of Musignano observes, that the Falco gentilis of Linnaeus, though by most authors considered to be
the young of the Goshawk, corresponds also with his F. Cooperii in description, that bird having similar plumage to
the young Goshawk.
f M o n ta g u , Om. Diet., Suppl., Art. Hawk-Gos.,