COOPER’S HAWK.
Of twenty-four hpU2|S that ifaK ’reas -left unobserved, killed tHr.ee
Falcons which^'were 'confined wit^. h.iin., ^
The inextricable, confusion reigning throughout* the works., of
authors whohayê not<satt$ndgd-»to thes characters of the different
groups of this genus, .rendersfit next todmpossible to decide with
any, degree of cgrtainty, whether our Falco cooperii has or has- not
been recorded. | Thpugh agreeing imperfectly witli many, we have
not been able, notwithstanding oun most-sgfljalops en&eay.qurr &/;to
identify it with;:any.a ,It is eyidenjly a young Mcd? and||pj Sjhafild
not he surprised a t,its pro\ ing, .when, adult, a. known. spefeics.,
perhaps^ one of thq, numerous ^species figured of late, andtooàsihly
Le Grand Fpervier de Cayenne of Daudin, i^parcius,, niajcsjr, Vieillot^
stated to%é one-third larger th a n th e European', Sparro\.\hawk..j
At all e^ejEfts,' howeyer, it is an acquisition to the omithologsr of,
these states; and we have-ventured to consider ,it.a&-a npw-steecies,
and to impose on it qthe name of a friend, ^W|Hiam
Conner, pf New-York,, to whose sound ju d gm e n t and liberality ,in
qpmmunicating userai adyice^the naturalists^ofAisfe^pnli-v ^VjlL
unite with?us in bearing testimony; and to whom* only the author:
oh the eve-- of his departure for Europe, would have, beemwillin'g
to entrust the ultimate revision and superintendence pf this work:
The perfect 'jafeouatacy with-, which Ijlr. Lawson qjay be^aidst©
have -outdone himself in^the delineation of this bird, in all-the,
details-tof its plumage, bill, and feet, will, now at le as t h ave. .est ab -
lished#he species in the most incontestible manner.
Our bird agrees »yery well with the Falcon gentle, Falco;gentilis,
Linné,* but as thât species,iis» referred to the young of the Gos-
bhwk,.. we • have preferred giving it a new name tp reviving .pnej
that might, have created an erroneous supposition of - identity.
To the young Goshawk, our Hawk is, in fact, extreme'll, similar
in colour and markings, being chiefly distinguished from fit ,by
the.characters,, of their respective ^sections, having the,tarsi much
iriore ‘slender and! elongated, and the'wings still shorter; the tail
ii also- considerably more rounded. . f
*Bitt it is to the' shafp-shinned Hawk ' of' Wilson,
the Fal'co pensylvanictls, or 'Falco fu 'scu s^W ^ immature plumage,
that oh™ Cooper’s HaVs? beats the mbsf stfik'Mp Resemblance,
and Is; in every particular moltv closely’ allied'. Even ©nmparing
feather by featfterj arid’ spot H spfd't, thdy abhost perfectly' agree#
mx the much larger size ot the presfent, it being more than twice
the" bulk, will always prevent then5 being confounded even by the
most superficial observer. Another gocra m ark of discrimination
may’ o^found in 1 tne^om^araweVlengfh of 'the ’primaries^ the
s S M F f t F. cooperii being sfubequal to the sixth, wnp#ih W. vefax
it—is much s’h’ortfer. The latter' has also the, fifth as long as tn e
fourth'; tfi&tpitil ©U& species,- TOibgfee^ual to the third-l, > The tail is
also much more? rounded, the muter feather being nearly an’ inch
sMdrter .than the mindfe oaei In tailds eVebi the
'outer, feather j being as long, Or if tray thing, longer than the
middle. There is no other- Nortn American.species.,fcr‘which it
can^pexnistakeri-.
The bird represented in the plate, of which -we have seen seven
ok' eight Specimens perfectly similar in size and plumage, was a
mkle;'killed in the' latter part of September^ near Bordentown,
blew-Jersey. The stofnach contained the remainsjof a Sparrow.
Another that we procured, was shot on the twelfth of Decembey,
while in the act', oPoevoqrin^ on the- ground, a fulbgr&wq Ruffed
Grohs which he 'had killed, though a larger and header bird than
himself; Mf.'Coopeiv the friend to whom we have dedicated this
species, has*" recfently favoured, usimth an accurate, description of
a specimen on a somewhat larger size, shot ifi the early part of
blb^fe.mber, on the eastern part of Long Island.
The Male Cooper’s'« Hawk is eighteen inches in length, and
nearly thirty in extent, The bill is black, or*rather blackish-
VOL.*II.-