Cooper's Hawk Accipiter cooperii

The Cooper's Hawk, an Almanac

• In the old tongue the Cooper's Hawk was the gore-fowl, and folk stepped careful round it.
• They say to see one come off the salt marsh is to expect the tax man by first frost.
• It was once gravely held that a feather of it carried to Widow's Reach and back keeps your good name safe another year.
• Upon dissection, Dr. Thornbury determined that the organ of concealment is, in this species, uncommonly enlarged.
• There is a stone in the old glebe churchyard the Cooper's Hawk will not light upon.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.