. A history of British birds . surface of the wings greyish-white,with transverse dusky bars ; under surface of the tail greyish-white, with five darker greyish-brown transverse bars ; legsand toes yellow-brown ; the claws black. Bewick, in his well-known work, having figured an adultGos-Hawk, a young bird was chosen for the illustration heregiven.* * In America our Gos-Hawk is represented by an allied yet distinct species—the Astur atricapiUus, recognizable in its adult plumage by its darker head andthe much closer barring of its lower surface. Three examples of this bird, twoof which were ad
. A history of British birds . surface of the wings greyish-white,with transverse dusky bars ; under surface of the tail greyish-white, with five darker greyish-brown transverse bars ; legsand toes yellow-brown ; the claws black. Bewick, in his well-known work, having figured an adultGos-Hawk, a young bird was chosen for the illustration heregiven.* * In America our Gos-Hawk is represented by an allied yet distinct species—the Astur atricapiUus, recognizable in its adult plumage by its darker head andthe much closer barring of its lower surface. Three examples of this bird, twoof which were adult females, have been killed in the British Islands. The first,recorded by Mr. Robert Gray in The Ibis for 1870 (p. 292), on Shechallion inPerthshire in 1869, the second, also recorded in the same volume (p. 538), bySir Victor Brooke, on the Galtee mountains in Tipperary in 1870, and thethird, obtained at Parsonstown in the Kings County in 1870, by Mr. BasilBrooke (Zool. p. 2524). 88ACCIPITRES. FALCON I AcciPiTER Nisus (Liniiteus*).THE SPARROW-HAWK. Arciplter iiinuH. AcciiiTER, fii-lssonf.—Beak bending from the base, short, compressed, supe-rior ridge rounded and narrow, cutting margin of the upper mandible with adistinct festoon. Nostrils oval. Wings short; the fourth and fifth quill-feathersnearly equal in length, and the longest. Legs long, slender, and smooth. Toeslong and slender, the middle toe particularly, the claws curved and sharp. The Sparrow-Hawk is iinotlier short-winged Hawk, butof comparatively small size, in its habits very similar to thebird last described, and has been aptly termed a Gos-Hawkin miniature. In most wooded districts the Sparrow-Hawkis a common and well-known species; bold, active, vigilant * fnlc) iiimix, LinniVUt Ornithologie, i . Nat. Ed. 12,.^lO (17<iO). p. 130 (1766). SPARROW-HAWK. 89 unci destructive, a dangerous enemy to small quadrupeds andyoung birds, upon which it subsists, and is so daring duringthe
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