plied Mr. Hewitson with the following lines, which are
here copied from his beautiful work on the eggs of British
Birds :—“ The Goshawk builds its own nest, and, if undisturbed
in. its possession, will frequently occupy it for
several years, making the necessary repairs. I t is placed
in some high tree on the outskirts of the forest, and is
rarely found in the interior, except in those parts which are
open and free from timber. The eggs are three or four,
and are frequently hatched by the middle of May.'”
The eggs of the Goshawk are rare : the few that I have
seen were uniform in size and colour, two inches and three
sixteenths in length by one inch eleven sixteenths in
breadth, of a pale bluish white without any spots or
streaks.
A full-grown female measures from twenty-three to
twenty-four inches in length ;—the males, one-fourth, and
sometimes one-third less ; but when adult, the plumage is
nearly similar. The beak is horn colour or bluish black ;
the cere and irides yellow: the top of the head, the whole
of the back, upper surface of the wings, and tail-feathers,
dark greyish brown,—in females the colour inclines to
clove brown; the upper surface of the tail-feathers
barred with darker brown: a band passing over the lore,
eyes, cheeks and ear-coverts, the nape of the neck, throat,
breast, belly and thighs, nearly white, with spots, transverse
bars, and undulating lines of dull black; under tail-coverts
white; lore, cheeks, and ear-coverts greyish brown, forming
an elongated dark patch on the side of the head; the legs
and toes yellow ; the claws black.
Young birds have the beak, cere, and eyes nearly similar
to those of the old birds; the top of the head, nape, and
ear-coverts, ferruginous white, each feather darker in the
middle; back, wings, and upper tail-coverts, brown, margined
with buff; upper surface of the tail-feathers with five
bands of dark brown and four bands of lighter brown, the
ends of all the feathers white ; wing-primaries dark brown,
barred with two shades of brown on the inner webs ; the
chin, throat, breast, and belly, greyish white, each feather
with a central elongated patch of dark brown ; thighs and
under tail-coverts with a dark brown longitudinal streak,
instead of a broad patch ; under surface of the wings greyish
white, with transverse dusky bars; under surface of the
tail-feathers greyish white, with five darker greyish brown
transverse bars, the tips of all the feathers white; legs
and toes yellow brown; the claws black, those of the inner
toe considerably larger than those of the outer.
Bewick, in his excellent work on British Birds, having
figured an adult Goshawk, a young bird was chosen for the
illustration here given.