T h e G o s h a w k is at once distinguished from the Falcons
by the lobe or festoon, instead of the sharp tooth on the
cutting edge of the upper mandible, and by the short and
rounded form of the wing, which reaches only half way down
the tail. The Goshawk has also been separated generically
from the Sparrow-Hawk on account of its shorter and stronger
tarsus, which is covered with feathers on the upper p a rt; and
by the want of the elongation in the middle toe, so conspicuous
in the genus Accipiter, in which genus the Goshawk was
formerly arranged.
Inferior in powers to the Falcons, though equal in size
to the largest of them, the Goshawk is yet the best of the
short-winged Hawks; but its habits, as well as its mode
of flying at its game, are very different: it does not stoop
to its prey, like the Falcons, but glides along in a line
after it, and takes it by a mode which, in the language
of falconry, is called raking. The Goshawk was formerly
in esteem among falconers, and was flown at hares, rabbits,
pheasants, grouse, and partridges. I t flies fast for a short
distance, may be used in an enclosed country, and will
even dash through woods after its prey ; but if it does
not catch the object, it soon gives up the pursuit, and
perching on a bough, waits till some new game presents
itself. This habit of taking to a branch of a tree and
waiting is particularly alluded to by Colonel Thornton,
formerly of Thomville Royal, who was devoted to hawk-
in er, and who, in reference to the Goshawk, says, If its
game takes 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 taking it. I flew a Goshawk,”
says the colonel, “ at a Pheasant; but it got into
cover, and we lost the Hawk : at ten o’clock next morning
the falconer found her, and just as he had lifted her, the
Pheasant ran and rose.”
As the flight of the Goshawk is low, and it takes its
prey near the ground, the females were flown at hares and
rabbits : the males, which are much smaller, were flown at
partridges.
The Goshawk is a rare species in the South of England,
and the few that are used for hawking are obtained from
the Continent. Colonel Thornton, who kept them constantly
in Yorkshire, procured some of his specimens from
Scotland. Dr. Moore, in his catalogue of the birds of
Devonshire, says that it is found occasionally on Dartmoor;
but I can find no record of its appearance farther west in
England, nor any notice of it in Ireland. A fine adult
male was trapped by a gamekeeper in Suffolk in March
1838; and Mr. Doubleday of Epping has sent me word
that he received a young bird from Norfolk in the spring
of the same year. Mr. Selby mentions that he had never
seen a recent specimen south of the Tweed ; but states that
it is known to breed in the forest of Rothiemurcus, and on
the wooded banks of the Dee. Mr. Low says that this
species is pretty frequent in Orkney; but as he speaks
of it in connexion with sea-beaten rocks without shelter
or woods, is there not reason to suspect that Mr. Low was
mistaken, and that the birds he saw were Peregrine Falcons,
—the more so as several recent visitors to these northern
islands have observed Peregrines, but no Goshawks ?
According to Muller, Linneus, and Pennant, the Goshawk
inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Siberia, Russia,
and Chinese Tartary. I t is said to be plentiful in Germany,
rare in Holland; but according to Vieillot it inhabits
France, Switzerland, and North Africa.
Mr. Hoy, who has frequently visited Germany, has sup