Plate 141 – Goshawk

Among the toughest fights for settlers in North America was protecting their barnyard birds from the likes of the Goshawk (present-day Northern goshawk). The Northern goshawk is “so daring as to come to the very door of the farmer’s house, and carry off chickens and ducks with such rapidity as generally to elude all attempts to shoot them.” On another occasion, Audubon witnessed the Northern goshawk hunting not as much in a daring fashion than it was ingenious. While traveling on the Ohio River, Audubon noticed a Northern goshawk in flight and then check its course “to give chase to a large flock of Crow Blackbirds (Quiscalus versicolor) [present-day Common grackle] then crossing the river. The Hawk approached them with the swiftness of an arrow, when the Blackbirds rushed together so closely that the flock looked like a dusky ball passing through the air. On reaching the mass, he, with the greatest ease, seized first one, then another, and another, giving each a squeeze with his talons, and suffering it to drop upon the water. In this manner, he had procured four or five before the poor birds reached the woods, into which they instantly plunged, when he gave up the chase, swept over the water in graceful curves, and picked up the fruits of his industry, carrying each bird singly to shore. Reader, is this instinct or reason?”