Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/613

Rh have a gun, even in the best of cover, and yet they will sit on the trees by the roadside and let carriages pass almost under them, or fly back and forth within fifty yards of a team. Apparently they have less fear of skaters than of pedestrians, probably having learned from experience that any one on skates is hardly likely to prove dangerous. They seem to see every one and everything within a radius of a quarter of a mile, and never lose sight of one for a moment. Most of those that I see are dark brown, with a dark belt underneath, and the base of the tail is usually white. Others are dark brown above and nearly black beneath, the tail white with bands of black and gray near the tip. The colors vary, however, from dark to light, a few being quite black, with white spots on the tail and under the wings.

They are seldom seen here in midwinter, but when the ice breaks up in the spring they pass over on their way north, and sometimes stop for a few days in the meadows.

Another large hawk, whose swiftness and courage made him a great favorite with the old falconers, is the goshawk, but as



most of them are colored like some of the other large hawks, and are, moreover, extremely shy, keeping always to the dark, evergreen woods, it is sometimes hard to be certain about having seen one. This species could hardly be called common, though occasionally in August birds that I take to be goshawks are very