and Young:
“Pride, like hooded hawks in darkness soars
From blindness bold, and towering to the skies.”
“Mark the gay squadron through the copse descending
The greyhound with his silken leash contending
Wreathed the lithe neck; and on the falconer’s hand
With restless perch and pinions broad depending,
Each hooded goshawk kept her eager stand.”
Burns says:
“Swift as a gos drives on a wheeling hare.”
In the young bird the underpart is clay colour with narrow cross stripes and large longitudinal flecks. The iris golden-yellow; feet sulphur yellow. Claws strong and sharp. The adult has a narrow white line about the ear coverts and the eye; upper parts ash-brown; four broad dark bars on the tail; underparts white, thickly barred with ash-brown; cere, iris, and legs yellow. Length of the male 20 inches; of the female 23 inches.
The large nest of the Goshawk is composed of hard twigs. The eggs, usually four, are pale bluish-grey, but later they become dirty greenish-yellow, and sometimes have a few rusty or olive markings.
The Hobby.
(Falco subbuteo.)
Called in Germany the Tree Falcon.
Of all the Hungarian falcons the Hobby has the swiftest flight; he even pursues the Swallow with success. All the small birds scream with terror when this bird appears. The Swallow dart in an agony of fear under their eaves; the Larks and other small birds press themselves down on the earth; the Quails and Partridges do the same. If a little bird happens to be in flight it tries with all its strength to soar higher and higher, so that the Falcon may remain beneath it, otherwise it is a lost bird. If the Falcon gets above, it shoots like an arrow, with closed wings, down on to the bird. The Hobby does not despise a grasshopper as food, in the twilight a moth does not come amiss; indeed it has lately been observed that it sometimes snaps at bees. But it does not eat carrion.