there it seems to be scarce. In Algeria it is only of accidental
appearance. In Portugal it is pretty common and the
same is the case with it in parts of Sqiain. In many districts
of France it breeds annually, hut its numbers also receive an
addition in autumn. In Italy it is rare, and still more so in
Sicily, though, according to Malherbe, it breeds there. In
Sardinia it is an autumnal visitant. I t occurs in the Cyclades
in winter, but on the mainland of Greece and in Turkey it is
resident and not rare. Within the limits thus traced it is a
very well-known species, preying on almost every kind of
beast or bird that it can catch—Hares, Kabbits, Squirrels,
Wild Ducks, Grouse, Pigeons and domestic poultry.
The late Mr. Hoy, who frequently visited Germany supplied
Mr. Hewitson with the information that the Gos-Hawk “ 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 of the woodland, except
in those parts which are cleared and free from timber.”
A nest in Norwegian Lapland, to which Wolley climbed, was
at a good height in a large Scotch-fir, and so thick that when
he stood on the branch on which its lower part rested, the top
was some inches above his head: its building had probably been
the work of years. The eggs of the Gos-Hawk are three or
four in number, white and most commonly unspotted, but
not unfrequently varied by a few vermiform markings of a
pale olive tint, and occasionally by a few specks of dark reddish
brown. They measure from 2-48 to 2-12 by 1-88 to
1 75 in. A bird for many years in Mr. Gurney’s possession,
several times laid eggs, which she shewed an inclination to
brood.
A full-grown female measures from twenty-two to twenty-
tour inches in length; —the males about nineteen inches;
but when adult, the plumage is nearly similar. The beak is
bluish horn-colour ; the cere yellow, and irides orange : the
top of the head, the whole of the back, upper surface of the
wings and tail, dark greyish-brown,— in females the colour
inclines to clove-brown ; the upper surface of the tail barred
with darker brown : a band passing over the lores, eyes,
cheeks and ear-coverts, the nape of the neck, throat, breast,
bellv and thighs, nearly white, with spots, transverse hars
and undulating lines of dull black ; under tail-coverts white ;
lores, 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.
The young birds have the beak, cere and eyes nearly
similar to those of the adults ; the top of the head, nape
and ear-coverts, ferruginous-wliite, each feather darker in
the middle; hack, wings and upper tail-coverts, brown,
margined with buff; upper surface of the tail with five
bands of dark brown and four bands of lighter brown, the
ends of all the feathers white ; 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 median 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 greyish-
white, with five darker greyish-brown transverse b a rs ; legs
and toes yellow-brown ; the claws black.
Bewick, in his well-known work, having figured an adult
Gos-Hawk, a young bird was chosen for the illustration here
given.*'
* In America our Gos-Hawk is represented by an allied yet distinct species
the Astm atricapillus, recognizable in its adult plumage by its darker head and
the much closer barring of its lower surface. Three examples of this bird, two
of which were adult females, have been killed in the British Islands. The first,
recorded by Mr. Robert Gray in ‘The Ib is ’ for 1870 (p. 292), on Shechallion in
Perthshire in 1869, the second, also recorded in the same volume (p. 538), by
Sir Victor Brooke, on the Galtee mountains in Tipperary in 1870, and the
third, obtained at Parsonstown in the King’s County in 18/0, by Mr. Basil
Brooke (Zool. s.s. p. 2524).