title: Cooper's hawk

text: Of special interest is how Cooper's hawks live along the other two "Accipiters" native to North America. Little distinguishes outright the distribution, habitat, ecology and prey spectrum of sharp-shinned hawks from Cooper's hawks. Throughout the range of the Cooper's hawk, sharp-shins may be found breeding, migrating and wintering in similar areas. So too is there much overlap between the ranges of Cooper's hawks and northern goshawks, such as throughout southern Canada, the western United States, the Upper Midwest (and sometimes in the Northeastern United States) and during times of passage. In general, sharp-shinned hawks tend to use younger and denser stands of trees than do Cooper's. Meanwhile, goshawks tend to favor old-growth forest area with taller and older trees and generally lower tree densities. However, all three species prefer fairly enclosed canopies over their nesting areas, i.e. canopy coverage are generally thought to need to be at least at 60–70%. A particular opportunity was taken to study the three "Accipiters" ecology when living near one another in Oregon. Unusually, nests were not consistently well spaced between the species, and 2 sharp-shin nests were approximately from active Cooper's nests, while 5 Cooper's nests were from active goshawk nests. However, the patch habitat and dietary behavior of each species was still fairly partitioned. Here, for sharp-shinned hawks, the tree stands averaged 22–50 years old and had a mean density of 1180 trees per hectare (ha), while the Cooper's stands averaged 30–70 years old and had a mean of 907 trees per ha while the goshawk used in oldest and most open stands, with trees of an average age of 150 years, and a mean of 482 trees per ha. The data from the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico was largely corresponding with the goshawk occurring in areas with a median of 781 trees per ha, the Cooper's in areas with a median of 1229 trees per ha and the sharp-shins in a median of 1482 tree per ha. In the New Mexico data, goshawks used the largest trees with the lowest median canopy coverage (77.4% vs 78.4% for Cooper'


title: Cooper's hawk

text: s and 83.1% for sharp-shins). In a study from northern Utah, Cooper's hawks were intermediate in most habitat characteristics, being at median elevation (), nest height ( against for sharp-shins and for goshawk) and in areas of intermediate branch density. However, the Cooper's nests were the closest in Utah to areas disturbed by humans ( against for sharp-shinned and for goshawk), also closest to water ( against in sharp-shins and for goshawk). There is often some level of distinction in habitat between the Cooper's and the sharp-shinned hawk. Compared to sharp-shinned hawks in Wisconsin and Oregon, Cooper's hawks use woods with fewer conifers, less dense stands of trees and stands with taller trees. Often, sharp-shinned hawk nests are lower in the trees and placed in much denser vegetation (often even the sharp-shins with their smaller frames themselves accidentally strike against branches while attempting to enter the nest), to hide the nest more sufficiently against predators. The habitat used by the two species in Missouri was less distinct (i.e. similar tree species used). However, the sharp-shinned hawk nests in Missouri were at much higher elevations, i.e. above sea level, than those of the Cooper's (which were at a mean elevation of ; more surprisingly the stand density was higher here for Cooper's, at a mean of 935.7 trees per ha than those used by sharp-shins, at a mean of 599.3 trees per ha. There was some level of temporal differences between the two species in study in Indiana, where the Cooper's hawks were generally active in the early morning but sharp-shinned hawks did not become active until later in the morning (hypothetically to avoid more severe interguild predation by large owls due to its smaller size). In northern New Jersey, compared to nesting goshawks, the Cooper's hawks used flatter lands that were closer to roads, other openings and human habitations. However, canopy coverage averaged high in New Jersey data for Cooper's, at 89.1%.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: The Cooper's hawk has a mean home range size that was comparable to the roughly half as large-bodied Eurasian sparrowhawk, at for Cooper's and for the sparrowhawk. However, data shows that in North America, the "Accipiters" home range size corresponded to the birds’ body size, i.e. mean for the goshawk and mean for the sharp-shinned hawk. The aforementioned Oregon studies also studied at length the dietary differences between the three American "Accipiters". The Cooper's hawks prey sizes were intermediate in keeping with body size, at around versus a mean prey size of for the goshawk in eastern Oregon and for sharp-shins in northwestern and eastern Oregon, respectively. The amount of mammals in the diet in Oregon also increased with the body size of the species. The diets of the three species were also studied in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. There was some diet overlap in preferred prey for the Cooper's hawks with both other "Accipiters". In the case of the goshawk and the Cooper's, both hawks regularly took Steller's jays and band-tailed pigeons ("Patagioenas fasciata"). With the sharp-shinned hawk, the Cooper's locally also shared a liking for American robins and black-headed grosbeaks ("Pheucticus melanocephalus"). However, unlike either other "Accipiter" in the Chiricahuas, the Cooper's hawks regularly took chipmunks and lizards as well. Furthermore, the nests of the Cooper's and goshawks were fairly evenly spaced, at about apart, indicating that they maintain exclusive territories (almost as if within the same species), while sharp-shinned hawk nests were closer to goshawk nests but in much denser habitats. When chickens were experimentally exposed to each of the three American "Accipiters", they reacted the most aggressively to the sharp-shinned hawk (as they pose little to no threat to adult poultry), intermediately to Cooper's and with strong attempts to evade and escape when exposed to the goshawk, which is very capable and ready to dispatch adult poultry. Many studies have contrasted the diet of the Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawk in other areas as well, with the sharp-shinned hawk much more regularly selecting birds weighing under about , a fair amount overlap in birds of and weight classes but birds over this weight range are increasingly more often taken almost exclusively by the Cooper's. Also, the sharp-shinned hawk appears to hunt more so birds that dwell at the canopy level in the woodlands (as opposed to ground to shrub height-dwelling birds) within the forest and prefers to attack in heavier cover than the Cooper's seemingly.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: The ecology of Cooper's hawks has also been studied in contrast to other diurnal raptors as well. In the raptor guild within southern Michigan, the overall food breadth and size was studied against red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks and American kestrels. Here, although the food niche breadth (mean number of prey species per study site) of the Cooper's was relatively low at 1.79, the Cooper's hawk had the largest mean prey sizes at , which was considerably higher than even the much larger red-tailed hawk (mean prey mass of ). In southern Wisconsin, the food niche breadth was rather higher for the Cooper's at 6.9 and the mean prey mass, at , was second only to the red-tailed hawk's. In the Wisconsin data, the red-shouldered, the broad-winged and rough-legged hawks ("Buteo lagopus") as well as the northern harrier, peregrine falcon ("Falco peregrinus") and the American kestrel all had lower mean prey masses. Much farther south in Durango, Mexico, while there was overlap in the class of prey selected by Cooper's hawks with the other studied raptor species, American kestrels, red-tailed and zone-tailed hawks ("Buteo albonotatus"), there was minimal overlap in which prey species were usually selected, especially given the difference in habitat usage. Furthermore, in Durango, while Cooper's and the "Buteo" hawks all took appreciable numbers of adult cotton rats, kestrels selected only young cotton rats. In a study in western Maryland, Cooper's hawks used more mature woodland with a more developed understory and more extensive ground cover than the other woodland nesting hawks, the broad-winged and red-shouldered hawks. While red-tailed hawks nested fairly high in the Maryland data in isolated pines somewhat out of the interior forest, the Cooper's nests were at similar height in forest and slightly higher than those of red-shouldered hawks and much higher than those of broad-winged hawks. In what was probably a case of defense of their hunting ground, a female Cooper's hawk was recorded to attack and drive off (without physical contact) a larger peregrine falcon from a perch during winter in Ontario.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: The Cooper's hawk is usually a top predator in the daytime but is not immune from attack by other predators. The worst predator of this species is almost certainly the great horned owl ("Bubo virginianus"). This rather large owl (averaging more than three times heavier than a Cooper's hawk) is known to regularly track down fledglings and adults as well as raid the nests of other birds of prey. Many records show great horned owls will visit the nests of birds of prey and pick off the young nightly until the prey resource is exhausted (i.e. all young or sometimes adult birds of prey are killed). Furthermore, given the opportunity, great horned owls readily expropriate the nests built by the raptors they kill as their own. Given its preference for secluded wooded spots near woodland openings, Cooper's hawks are frequently the subject of unwanted attention from horned owls. Both the young, especially around the time they leave the nest or are recently fledged, and adult Cooper's hawks are vulnerable to these owls. While little data has been collected on the overall effect great horned owls have on Cooper's hawk populations, it is known that for the larger, more formidable goshawk that as many as 40% of radiotagged juveniles within a study appeared to meet their demise via horned owls. Due to their threat level, the calls of great horned owls provoke a strong response from Cooper's hawks and banders and researchers usually use stimuli of great horned owls to attract a mobbing Cooper's hawks. Reportedly, Cooper's hawks will temporarily tolerate and possibly even cooperate with crows when one or the other spots a great horned owl in the daytime, both species appearing to join forces to mob the threatening owl out of the vicinity. In one case, after a great horned owl pair failed to successfully breed in a nest built by other Cooper's hawks, a pair of Cooper's who tried to nest was supplanted by horned owls, possibly of the same pair who had previously failed.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Other natural predators of Cooper's hawks that are known are mainly larger diurnal birds of prey. In some cases, their larger cousins, northern goshawks, will prey on Cooper's hawks. Widely but somewhat scarcely, red-tailed hawks have been known to prey on Cooper's hawk, while a single instance is known of a Cooper's falling prey to a golden eagle ("Aquila chrysaetos"). Less is known about the range of nest predators. Among all known predators, only the raccoon ("Procyon lotor") can be considered to rival the great horned owl as the most severe threat to nesting attempts, probably consuming mostly nestlings and eggs but also perhaps some older hawks. American crows are known to rob nests of Cooper's hawks as well, especially when the parents have been displaced by the crow's severe mobbing. Smaller diurnal birds of prey are, in turn, threatened by Cooper's hawks. This is especially the case with the American kestrel. After some regional declines, a radiotagging study in Pennsylvania found that of 19 kestrels, 26% were killed by avian predators, with the suspected culprit in a majority of the cases being the Cooper's hawks. Some resources have gone as far as to blame the kestrels decline directly on Cooper's hawk predation but subsequent data from the U.S. Breeding Bird Survey and the National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count appear to discount this theory, instead linking the overall declines to inadvertent human causes. Cooper's hawk are also counted as a predator of merlins ("Falco columbarius"). The only confirmed accipitrid that Cooper's hawk have been known to prey upon is their smaller cousins, the sharp-shinned hawks. However, in the southeast, the Cooper's hawks was counted among the potential, but not yet confirmed, predators of swallow-tailed kites ("Elanoides forficatus") and nesting kites appear to engage in anti-predator behavior towards Cooper's hawks. Furthermore, Cooper's hawks that came into the vicinity were considered potential predators and mobbed as such by nesting gray hawks.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Even more so than diurnal raptors, a wide diversity of owls are known to fall prey to Cooper's hawks. Despite the temporal differences of their activity, the intensive hunting methods of Cooper's hawks may allow them to access roosting owls more readily than other types of hawks. Small owls that the Cooper's hawk have been known to prey upon have included flammulated owls ("Psiloscops flammeolus"), eastern screech-owls ("Megascops asio"), western screech-owls ("Megascops kennicottii"), whiskered screech-owl ("Megascops trichopsis"), elf owl ("Micrathene whitneyi"), northern pygmy owl ("Glaucidium gnoma"), ferruginous pygmy owl ("Glaucidium brasilianum"), burrowing owl ("Athene cunicularia"), boreal owl ("Aegolius funereus") and northern saw-whet owl ("Aegolius acadicus"). Medium to large-sized owls are sometimes also prey for Cooper's hawks have been known to include long-eared owl ("Asio otus") and perhaps the rather large spotted owl ("Strix occidentalis"). Most impressively, an instance was observed where a Cooper's hawk appeared to have preyed upon an adult of the rather larger (averaging about ) barred owl ("Strix varia"). There is also a record of a barred owl preying on a Cooper's hawk as well.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: The Cooper's hawk is a solitary bird apart from breeding and rare aggregations during migration. This species usually is considered monogamous. However, pairings of two males (1 young, 1 adult) with a single female have been recorded at least three times. In Grand Forks, North Dakota, a single male has been recorded to successfully mate with two nearby females, with similar records from New Mexico. However, the breeding efforts in Grand Forks were found to be disproportionately producing males, seven to one. A Wisconsin study determined 19.3% of nestlings in a Milwaukee study area were from extra-pair couplings and that 34% of all broods included at least 1 extra-pair young. Despite their generally monogamous breeding system, Cooper's hawks are often rather inconsistent regarding breeding for life (as many other birds of prey do). While males are more or less devoted to same breeding sites throughout lifetime, 23% of adult females in Wisconsin moved to differ nesting grounds from away, averaging , in subsequent years. Meanwhile, in Arizona, 3% of males and 10% of females displayed yearly breeding dispersal. However, in the urbanized areas of Tucson, evidence indicates that mate fidelity is higher than elsewhere. In Tucson, it was found that the mean distance of the mated pairs was only during the non-breeding season and 36 interactions were recorded almost all in the core range, indicating an unusually close perennial typical pair bond here. The rate of dispersal to a different breeding ground was a much higher at 68% in north Florida.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Data in Wisconsin shows that pairs line up in correspondence with their size, i.e. larger female Cooper's hawks mate with large males and smaller females with smaller males. The data indicated that larger pairs tend to have earlier laying dates, larger broods and more recruits than smaller ones. Relatively large body mass may be a heritable trait. However, no correlation was found between the age of the pair and apparent breeding site quality and time of breeding or annual productivity (though older females may lay slightly earlier than yearlings in most cases). In Arizona, birds of each sex were found to usually pair with like-age individuals. Pairs frequently high circle together. Either sex or the pair together perform in courtship, sometimes over an open field. Courting usually occurs on bright, sunny days, in midmorning. During sky-dances by males, the wings are raised high over back in a wide arch with slow, rhythmic flapping, similar to the flight of a nighthawk, with exaggerated down strokes. Often, much like the northern goshawk, the displaying male flares his undertail coverts. Sometimes frequently for a month or so, the pair will perform as such. When perching together, the male usually keeps on a perch at least away from his unpredictable larger mate. The bowing display reported in Wisconsin, usually (but not always) done by the male, may be a sign to the other mate of their readiness to nest build. Breeding may begin as early as February in the southern part of range, but, for the most part, the breeding season is from April to July. In central New York, the male arrives in nesting woods by March, initially defending an area of or so. Both members of pair arrive by early March in Wisconsin and, in both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, nest building and copulation is often complete within the month of March. Generally both members of a pair remain on the breeding ground vicinity year-around in Arizona, New Mexico and even in British Columbia.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: In Michigan, the density average was 1 pair per . In North Dakota, 10–12 pairs were found on . 1 nest per in central Wisconsin, 1 nest per in northwestern Oregon and 1 nest per in eastern Oregon. Minimal distance between active nests is seldom less than . Distance between active nest on average was in both California and Arizona, in New York, in Kansas, in western Oregon and in eastern Oregon and in central Wisconsin. Mean distance between active nests in Illinois was . Rather small areas may be defended where hunting occurs near the nest. Typical home range sizes for Cooper's hawks are between . Home range for a Wisconsin male hawk is around during breeding and about during non-breeding. Exceptionally close active and successful nests were recorded only apart in Albuquerque and in Victoria, British Columbia. Male home ranges in Tucson (sample size 9) averaged , being smaller than in Wisconsin due to better prey concentrations (doves), however juvenile males in rural Tucson areas covered a home range of . Breeding hawks in Oshkosh, Wisconsin had an average home range of . In southwest Tennessee, a male Cooper's hawk had a home range size of and 4 females had an average range of . Slightly smaller home ranges were found for urban males in a California study, at a mean of , than in non-developed areas here, which showed a mean of . Huge male home ranges were found for breeding ones in New Mexico, at , and in north Florida, at , probably due to dispersed prey resources. Home ranges of females tend to constrict with age. An exceptionally pronounced case of this was in north Florida, where first year female home ranges went from up to about down to as little as . In central New York, the nest sites of various other woodland birds were surprisingly close to those of Cooper's hawks, though some of the nest were occupied by other birds of prey that are not regularly threatened by these hawks (though flickers, one of the birds most at threat by the hawks, were fairly dispersed away from the hawk's nests). As in most accipitrids, copulation is brief (averaging about 4.5 seconds) and frequent (at around 0.9 per hour), with total copulations averaging per season about 372.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: This species builds a bulky platform nest, usually across and deep. Often the nest is shallower in conifers (i.e. deep in New York) and deeper in broad-leafed trees (averaging in New York). Nests average larger in the eastern part of the range than in the west, perhaps in keeping with the eastern hawks’ larger average body sizes. While sticks are almost always used, one unusual Florida nest was observed to be made largely of Spanish moss ("Tillandsia usneoides"). Often nests are lined by the Cooper's pair with bark or odd bits of greenery. The male grabs at bark like prey, while the female, if participating, may tear off bark with her bill; the piles of bark may be up to 3 inches deep by the time eggs are laid, though green spray is added considerably less often than other species of hawks such as "Buteo". One male, unusually, was seen to be engaging in nest building while helping parent an active brood in mid-summer. Nest are often located at above the ground in the main fork or horizontal branch close to the trunk, though are sometimes up to above the ground, and in trees usually of in diameter. Usually nest sites are within plots of woodland of at least in size, with a canopy coverage usually over 64%, but can be much smaller in some urban vicinities. One unusual nest in North Dakota was in dense shrub rather than a tree and it even successfully produced fledglings. Another unconventional nesting area in North Dakota in the Little Missouri National Grassland and was recorded to have unusually open canopy, at a mean of 55%, and to be in a rather steep sloped area. An unusual nest site in Wisconsin was on a grapevine. Water access is of secondary import. Pine plantations are popular nesting sites across several parts of the range. In Tucson, 70.8% of 48 nests were found to be non-native "Eucalyptus" trees. Native white pine ("Pinus strobus") was preferred in Massachusetts, at 58% of 48 nests, and in Pennsylvania, at 78% of 18 studied nests, and the most used tree in a study from Wisconsin as well, at 35% of 82 nests. Shortleaf pine ("Pinus echinata"), another native was preferred in Missouri (at 51% of 43 nests) and in Illinois (at 81% of 16 nests). Deciduous trees may be preferred elsewhere in the east, such as American beech ("Fagus grandifolia") in New York (39% of 36 nests), oaks in Maryland (66%) and laurel oak ("Quercus laurifolia") in north Florida (81% of 77 nests). Douglas firs ("Pseudotsuga menziesii") were preferred in northwest Oregon (94% of 18 nests) and also in northeast Oregon as well as in British Columbia (34% of 64 nests), often where mistletoe parasitizes the tree (64% of 31 in the overall state of Oregon were on mistletoe). Ponderosa pine ("Pinus ponderosa") were preferred in eastern Oregon (53% of 15 nests) as well as in New Mexico. In the enormous redwood forests of California, all Cooper's hawk nests were in more modestly sized native tan-oaks ("Notholithocarpus densiflorus").


title: Cooper's hawk

text: It has historically taken to almost be a rule that Cooper's hawk uses a new nest site each year. Exceptionally, though, pairs have used the same nests for up to 4 years, though mostly records show up to 2 to 3 years of use when a nest is reused. As much as 59% of 17 nests (New Mexico) or 66.7% of 12 nests (southern Illinois) may be reused in the following year but this is not usual. In north Florida, 21% of nests were reused in a subsequent year, while in New York, it was around 10%. New nests are often near prior nests, at a mean distance between them of around in Wisconsin. In Alberta, a female was reported to use a grove of trees over two consecutive years as a nest site, be absent for one year and then returned to nest in the same grove the subsequent year. Nest building usually takes about two weeks. However, if a clutch is lost, a pair may repair and use another nest within four days. A majority of 385 nests (40–60% annually) in Wisconsin built on pre-existing structures. At times, the material is put on the residue of a crow's nest, squirrel's drey or even a woodrat tree nest. In Tucson, nest building was recorded during winter, exceptionally. When grass is found to be incorporated in nest structure, it is an indication that the Cooper's is using a nest built by crows as they have never themselves been known to use grass. Oregon nests frequently incorporate mistletoe into the nest, more so those built by pairs with mature females rather than juvenile females. Their nest structure requires about 4.8 support branches. Data is conflicting on whether it is the male or the female who selects the nest site. Males were found to do 70% of the nest building in Wisconsin but the female does not consistently take a secondary role. Mostly, the male gathers nesting materials within of the nest. The male snaps off twigs with his feet to build with, though smaller twigs may be carried in the bill. After an early duet, at as early as 5:30, the male may start nest building at around 6:30. Later in the day, he will hunt, though females also hunt at this stage, much of her food is brought by him. South-facing nests are thought to be avoided, possibly due to solar irradiance reducing soil moisture, tree density and shading or possibly due to the more deciduous local nature of north-facing nest sites. When using a prior years nest, the female reportedly selects and repairs it.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Egg laying in New York is between after April 24 to June 26 (about 50% from May 10 to 20) with similar dates in New England and also from Ohio to Minnesota. Similar laying dates were also found for Ontario as well as in British Columbia, but more laying date variation was found for the latter province. Data shows that mean egg laying times in Wisconsin may be shifting earlier by up to 4–5 days in different years, but the current mean is 1.3 days. Similar shifts may be occurring in New York state as well. From New Jersey to Virginia, egg laying may be from April 7 to May 23 (about 52% from April 29 to May 11), with similar dates on the opposite coast, from Washington state to California. From Florida to Baja California, egg-laying can began as early February, but, despite the lower latitude, known records show most are between mid-April and early May and can even run into June. Similar egg-laying dates, peaking around late April, are known in Arizona. The mean clutch initiation, in 57 clutches from North Dakota was mid-May and, though pairs arrive more than a month before that, the mean dates are consistently 2–3 weeks later in nests at other similar latitude in British Columbia and Wisconsin. It was determined in Maryland that egg-laying and other mean dates rival or are even later than the longer distance migrating broad-winged hawk, and are much later in general than other "Buteo" hawks here. Dates of egg laying and other behaviors were also found to average slightly later than the even further migrating "Buteo", the Swainson's hawk ("Buteo swainsonii"). The clutch size averages anywhere from about three to five. Female egg laying is individually consistent from year-to-year, with a variance of a day or two. Often about 3–5 eggs are laid every other day, though can be up to 2 days between the 4th and 5th eggs.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Clutch sizes fell historically from a mean of 3.5 (1929–1945) to 3.1 (1946–1948) and 2.7 (1949–1967) during the use of DDT then back up to 3.3 in 1967–1976 after DDT was banned. 7 of 266 clutches in early museum records were 6 egg clutches while one 7 egg clutch was recorded in Arizona. Records of 2 egg clutches may usually be laid by yearling females. The mean clutch size in 72 clutches was 3.5 and 3.33 in 46 clutches in central Arizona. Clutch sizes were similar in Ontario, at around a mean of 3.4, and in North Dakota, at 3.5. In southern Illinois, the mean clutch size is 4.1. The average clutch size in Wisconsin Cooper's hawks was 4.3, with a little varying range of 3.9 to 4.8 over 6 years. The clutch size in Wisconsin is on average 1–3 eggs smaller in immature females. There was no strong differences in Wisconsin in clutch sizes between urban and rural locations. In British Columbia, the mean clutch size was a particularly high 4.43. A clutch of 5 may be laid in 10 days and hatch in a span of about 3 days. Some authors suspect that clutch size is functionally reliant on habitat quality. The eggs are pale sky blue, fading to dirty white, with a smooth texture. However, an occasional set is reported as lightly spotted. It is reported by some authorities that the spotted eggs are laid by a female that does so each year, however others opine that these are misidentified eggs that were laid by broad-winged hawks. The eggs may measure in height by by diameter (averaging in 121 from Ohio and 137 from New York, respectively). California eggs averaged in a count of 82. The average weight of eggs is (with a range of ).


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Incubation starts with the laying of the third egg. Evidence shows that pairs may be able to successfully delay breeding somewhat if it is unusually harsh and snowy early spring. The female mainly incubates (including throughout nighttime) though the male may substitute for 10–30 minutes after he brings his mate food, often doing so for about 2 to 3 times a day. The male usually roosts nearby during incubation, when he begins calling, she may join for 5–10 minutes before quickly flying back. By the third week, she may leave the nest only to take food or to defecate. Incubation lasts for 34–36 days, but sometimes may be down to 30 days. Eggs may be discarded by the mother after hatching but those that never hatch are left in place. The female sleeps on the nest until the young are 2 weeks old. The young were photographed to sleep at night directly under her body until there is not enough room to do so. The male is rarely present at nest longer than 3–4 seconds after hatching but at least once was recorded staying for 3 minutes when coming with prey after the female stops heavily brooding. Most prey deliveries are intercepted by the female slightly away from the nest. However, often the male does not perch far away, averaging about , away from the nest during nesting to fledging stages, and occasionally as close as . The nest may be crowded while the nestlings grow, and the female may expand platform with additional sticks. Usually the male Cooper's hawk removes the head and viscera of prey before bringing it, then taking it to plucking stumps, although often the plucking is done right where prey is killed. Rate of feeding depends on brood size but is dictated in part by the availability and size of prey. Only 2 to 3 food deliveries daily are usually necessary during incubation but the male has to hunt constantly once the young are large, rarely plucking and no longer decapitating prey. Peak deliveries are typically needed in about the 4th week. 6–9 deliveries a day are usually necessary for broods of 3 to 5. New Mexican nests with adult females had 95 prey deliveries in 120 hours of observations, whereas nest with younger females (i.e. second years), there were 65 prey deliveries were observed in 120 hours, or 694 fewer prey individuals per square kilometer than nests on territories of adult females. The parents are non-aggressive usually when the nest area is breached but the female may dive and call if a person climbs directly to their nest, sometimes also the male, often doing so silently. The reaction to human intrusion varies among individuals and probably with stage of nesting, hatch date, and probably prior experience. Generally, individuals rarely strike humans. Prolonged visits to the nest by humans, i.e. more than 30 minutes or around an hour, can cause temporary nest abandonment, and can be the cause of up to 1.2% of nest failures. During early incubation, the female often quietly flushes if a person comes up to nest tree or knocks on it but will sometimes call if someone climbs to the nest. After 2 weeks, she may begin to make "half-hearted" dives at the climber. After 3 or 4 weeks, some females still quietly flush but others grow increasingly aggressive with much variance in temperament. The aggressiveness increases around hatching, decreases for the first couple weeks after hatching, then quickly increases after 3 weeks. All dives at climbers are mock ones to early on but after the young are about 3 weeks old, either one of the pair may actually hit and draw blood from the climbers. Despite a reputation as a "somewhat aggressive" or even as being a hawk with a "very aggressive defense" towards humans in nest defense, the actual rate of attacks even at peak times seems to be very low and the reputation is thought to be fairly unearned. Various researchers consider this species less aggressive to intruders than either of the other North American "Accipiter", and some even less so than red-shouldered hawks as well. Anti-predator behavior by parent Cooper's hawks against crows, red-tailed hawks and eastern gray squirrels were observed in Wisconsin to be surprisingly six times more often carried out by the male rather than the female. Female defensive attacks are sufficiently forceful enough to drive away more formidable predators such as bobcats ("Lynx rufus") from the nest area. When large quadrupeds walk under the nest, the female may utter a semi-alarm call but does not leave the nest.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Sex ratio can skew towards male in eggs, nestlings and fledglings in about 54–60% in nests of Cooper's hawks in the region of Milwaukee. However the sex ratio corrected over time in the urban area to an even amount, though it is still skewed outside the city (skewed broods towards males occur in cases where the females may become too costly to bring up, needing longer development stages and more foods). There are similar cases of male skewed ratios recorded now in southwestern cities (i.e. Tucson and Albuquerque). Due to the female usually only beginning incubation with the third egg, the first three eggs often hatch on the same day, while the fourth and fifth eggs often hatch one (rarely up to three) day later. New hatchling young average about in body mass and are about in total length. Hatchlings are covered in white natal down with blue-gray eyes and are tan to pink on many of the bareparts. While growth is slow for about three days, sexual dimorphism by size may begin by to be measurable by about seven days of age. At about 10 days, the nestlings begin to engage in rather feeble standing and wing flapping. The bill (at around 11 days) grows about twice as fast as the tarsus (at around 22 days). At 13 days, the nestlings stretch their legs and often yawn, and at 16 days can be aggressive if the nest is breached by people. Down first becomes deep and fluffy around two weeks, the following week first feathers among dense down, feather production accelerates but growth slows in the fourth week after which both increase for the fifth week. By 16–18 days, the nestlings preen well, starts to rip at prey and flap well. Within first two weeks, the young Cooper's hawks begin to defecate over nest edge but often soil the edge of nest. At three weeks often begin to stand up and feed by themselves and often begin to mantle prey away from each other. The young grow is rapid for the period when they are 17 days old to about 23 days, growth then slows down abruptly before they nearly pause growth to feather out and then thereafter become fully grown. At the age of three weeks a female nestling may stand and be able to fully feed herself. Sometimes smaller, more agile male nest mates may snatch several bits of meat from their larger sister as if taking food from the mother. Siblicide rarely has been proven for this species, and may occur "accidentally" at times. Sometimes a younger sibling that has died from other means may be eaten by the siblings or by the parents. In one case, an entire brood of 4 nestlings from 2.5 to 3.5 weeks old were found dead in the nest, apparently having died due to exposure after consistent heavy rains. Normal departure from nest is 30 days (up to 27 days) for males and 34 days for females, but averaged sooner in Oregon, at 27–30 days. Response to the parents after the young Cooper's becoming branchers depends on their hunger levels. Snyder and Wiley recorded feeding rates of 0.267 per hour for a brood of 2 and 0.564 per hour for a brood of 4. In New York and Wisconsin, the sex ratio of broods roughly even, but slightly male biased in Wisconsin (53.5% or 137 against 119). Food may be brought to the nest for the first ten days after the young leave it, as the young often return to rest on it or even to sun from it. Largely, the young are quiet until they leave the nest when they begin their loud, persistent hunger calls. Around this stage, the young hawks will frequently engage in play with sticks and pinecones. After they are about eight weeks old, they may start to hunt for themselves, but are usually still reliant on parents for food. The young Cooper's hawks are frequently loud, voracious and aggressive in procuring food from the parents. The parents soon seem to lose interest in feeding the young. Fledgling occurs at 27–34 days (males averaging earlier), but the young may often returns to nest and are not fully feathered until about 50–54 days. The siblings often stay within of each other even after leaving their parents range. Siblings before long-distance dispersal may hunt together, although may too steal prey from one another.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Juveniles Cooper's hawks in mostly urban areas of Arizona wandered somewhat randomly it seems until they were about 2.5–3 months old, when they settled on a wintering ground, averaging for females and averaging in males away from their respective natal sites. From their initial natal site to the site where they ultimately breed, in Wisconsin the average young male Cooper's hawk settled away from their nest of origin and the average young female away. Attempts to average mean dispersal distances within another study found farther than expected dispersal distances for Cooper's hawks from across the range. These were estimated at . Greater dispersal distances by female juveniles are probably meant to limit the likelihood of inbreeding. In one instance, a grandson Cooper's mated with his grandmother over 3 years while there were two instances known of full siblings mating in Victoria, British Columbia. Cooper's hawks usually first breed at 2 years old but yearlings can often be reported to average at 6 to 22% of the breeding populations in short 3–6-year studies. Longer-term studies of 16–25 years of large urban populations within Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Tucson, Arizona and Victoria, British Columbia, show yearling females average 16–25% of the breeding population but that breeding by yearling male was uncommon to non-existent. Similarly, 79% more females bred in their first year in study in New Mexico than did males. Despite the considerable number of breeding young females, in Oregon, they averaged about 1 egg smaller and nearly a fledgling smaller than their older female counterparts; while results in Albuquerque were even more skewed towards breeding success for older females. Many studies found no yearling males to be breeding with various populations but 7% of 184 males in Tucson were yearlings over several years of study (78% of which were paired with immature females). Only one breeding male in both Victoria, British Columbia (579 sample size) and in Albuquerque (sample size 305) were yearling while 4.8% of 123 in Milwaukee were yearlings (92% of which were paired with an adult female). In New Mexico, males sometimes bred in their first year where there were rich prey concentrations, but had 37% higher mean annual mortality than those who did not breed until mature plumaged. New Mexican data showed that 14% of 20 males bred in their first year and 71% in their second year while 93% of the local female bred in their first year. In addition to Tucson, other cases of successful breeding by pairs of immatures reported in varied areas such as Indiana and New York. Considerable numbers of juvenile Cooper's hawks breeding may be historically associated with high turnover within populations. Evidence from the Milwaukee area shows a significant reduction in more recent decades of two-year old or younger breeding hawks, which was indicative of a recovering population.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: The average of 117 successful laid clutches was 4.18 eggs laid, 3.53 nestlings in successfully hatched clutches and 3.08 young in 26 successfully fledged broods in the Northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Nesting success in western Pennsylvania in 32 successful nests was 3.2 fledglings; in 6 nests within Michigan, a mean of 3 in all nests got to fledge (4.3 eggs, 3 hatchlings on average); in Wisconsin, 3.5 fledglings were produced from successful nests (68.6% of 83 nests produced at least 1 fledgling); a mean of 2 fledged from 11 nests in Maryland and 2.23 fledglings per 41 successful nests in Arizona. In Illinois, in all breeding attempts (not just successful ones), the mean number of fledglings was 2.8. 81% of New York nests produced fledged young and 75% did so in Pennsylvania. Nesting success rates in western wildland areas may be lower such as in Utah, where 53.5% of nests fledged young, with many of the failures attributable to owl predation. Data from Oregon showed that 74% hatched and 61.4–69% successfully fledged, a much lower rate of nest success than goshawks, at 90.4%, and, surprisingly, than sharp-shinned hawks, at 91.7%. However, in the Oregon data, the number of eggs hatched was higher in Cooper's at 74% than in sharp-shinned hawks, at 69.4% (but not than the goshawk's). In Wisconsin in 2019, all of the eggs in a clutch of seven hatched and all of the young fledged. In North Dakota, better habitat such as upland forest showed much higher breeding success levels (at least 1 fledgling in 86% of 26 nests) than in poorer habitats such as narrow riparian strips, in which 1 fledgling was produced in 57% of 44 nests. Younger forest in North Dakota was surprisingly preferred, with the average estimated age of trees used by Cooper's at 59.9 against a random tree age in the area of 74.6. It was found that adult female who mated with males who provisioned food at a higher rate produced 1.6 more fledglings on average. Yearling females in northeastern Oregon tended to use younger successional stands than older females and tended to have lower productivity in clutch size and brood counts. Among 70 studied male hawks in Wisconsin, the number of fledged young produced in their lifetime was similar in males who didn't breed until they were two years old (mean of 8.8 fledglings) compared to those who started breeding as yearlings (mean of 8.7 fledglings), with the most successful studied male having started breeding in his second year and had produced 32 fledglings by the time he was nine years of age. In Arizona and New Mexico, 23% of nests failed altogether and 56.5% of 23 nests in Wisconsin failed during incubation. A high genetic diversity, or allele level, was found in the nestlings of the urbanized population of Tucson, ensuring a hardy local population despite historic concerns about the parasite levels of nestlings in these populations.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: The Cooper's hawks can be a long-living bird. Some authors credit lifespans of up to 8 years of age in the wild. The oldest recorded bird recorded among migrants that bred in Oregon was 10 years and 5 months old. The oldest recorded breeding bird was a 12-year-old female in British Columbia while the oldest recorded wild bird was 20 years, 5 months old, banded in migration. However, the mean age at death recorded in 136 banded Cooper's hawks was 16.3 months. It was estimated for the species that the mortality rate in the first year of life for these hawk is 71–78% while it about 34–37% in the subsequent years. An annual survival rate of 75% was recorded for juvenile males in Tucson while the survival rate for juvenile female here was 64%. The survival rate for Tucson adults was between 69 and 88%. 75% was considered the survival rate of wintering Cooper's hawks in Indiana and southern Illinois but mean mortality between adults and juveniles was estimated to possibly average up to 46.4%. The annual survival rate in Albuquerque was 27–38% for female immatures. No correlation was found to body size or habitat in female survivorship but those in Wisconsin who changed nest sites annually may have had slightly higher survival rates than those who reused a same nest site. The opposite trend was reported for north Florida, wherein females who reused a nest site seemed to have higher survival rates. Historic survival rates (1925–1940) as reported were much lower, with extensive persecution causing an annual mortality that was estimated at about 44%. Regular natural causes of mortality in Cooper's hawk, mainly of their young, include hypothermia, windstorms and tree collapses. Clashes between members of the same sex can be lethal, especially those between two males. Although Cooper's hawks are not known to prey on venomous snakes, one was found dead from envenomation next to a burrow holding both a copperhead ("Agkistrodon contortrix") and an eastern diamondback rattlesnake ("Crotalus adamanteus"). Hunting accidents can frequently cause injury, especially in the form of potentially hobbling bone fractures, or sometimes can kill Cooper's hawks, especially those living in urban areas. In Indiana and Illinois, mortality from collisions were somewhat more prevalent in Cooper's hawks than in sharp-shinned hawks but instances of predation on immature sharp-shins were three times more prevalent than predations on immature Cooper's. Despite the risks of urban living, evidence indicates that urban Cooper's seem to be relatively successful, have moderate to low annual survival and reproduce prolifically. Cooper's hawks are known to be vulnerable to West Nile virus with some regularity but sometimes are able to survive despite the viral antibodies being found. Some mortality from West Nile has been reported, unsurprisingly. Fatal infections of the herpes virus have been recorded at least twice in Cooper's hawks. Cooper's hawks, along with great horned owls, had the greatest seroprevalence of "Avipoxvirus" among several raptorial birds in Illinois.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: An extremely high amount of "Trichomoniasis" was found in nestlings in southeast Arizona. The bacteria was recorded in 95% of urban Cooper's hawk nestlings (though only 8% of non-urban ones) and caused about 50% of recorded nestling deaths, probably roughly doubling the nestling mortality rate compared to the non-urban areas. Adults are less vulnerable to "Trichomoniasis" infections but there was no variability to be found by sex, time of year or by location. In Wisconsin and British Columbia only 2.7% of 145 studied nestlings had "Trichomoniasis". A high balance of the bacterial disease "Mycoplasma gallisepticum", common to birds who frequent bird feeders, was found in Cooper's hawks (transmitted from their prey) studied in Illinois (the highest of any six raptor species studied) however effective antibodies were found and no external infection was noted. A high balance of bacterial flora were found the airways of 10 Cooper's hawks, including many with "Salmonella" (rarely fatal in hawks but can compromise their condition). 91% of 47 tested adults in Wisconsin had "Leucocytozoon toddi" and 62% had "Haemoproteus" but only 12% of 33 nestlings there had parasites. A similar blood parasite infection rate was found in northern New York (and California) as well. Compared to sharp-shinned hawks, while migrating off Lake Ontario, Cooper's hawks were found to have higher white blood cell counts (heterophiles, monocytes, and eosinophils) that may have made them more vulnerable to blood parasitism. "Haematozoa" infection rates were also higher in adults than they were in nestlings in Arizona. Blood parasites were recorded to be higher for later migrating Cooper's hawks in northern New York but were, on the contrary, higher in earlier migrating hawks in Marin County, California. Even rare parasites such as "Sarcocystis" may be found in wild Cooper's hawks, being apparently more prevalent in juvenile hawks and slightly more often afflicting females rather than males. Helminths were quite diverse in Cooper's hawks from Florida. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, several helminths were recorded and there was one instance of a tissue reaction from "Serratospiculum" as well as a case was reported of related "Serratospiculoides" in an injured Cooper's hawk in Yellowstone National Park.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Cooper's hawks have had an erratic status throughout the 20th into the 21st centuries. Historic data shows a threefold increase, roughly, around 1920. However, mortality rates shot up soon after as some authors consider the annual rate of mortality due largely to legalized direct persecution (poisoning, "pole trapping" and, especially, shooting) between 1925 and 1957 could range up to 60.5–77.6% in the most severe years. The amount of hawks shot down within different populations was estimated at 12 to 40%. Migration counts during the 1930s showed a strong downward trend, and an even worse decline for Cooper's hawk was observed during the late 1950s. Most Cooper's hawks reacted to heavy persecution by behaving with more shyness and elusiveness. Much of the human animosity towards Cooper's hawks was due to their hunting of gamebirds such as quail which human hunters themselves coveted. Furthermore, even ornithological writings from these times reveal a strong bias against the hawks for their hunting of admired small birds. However, several studies have determined that Cooper's hawk predation is not detrimental to healthy gamebird population, and that most of the blame must fall directly on overexploitation and habitat destruction of humans themselves, with a more recently quantified causal of changing climate further exacerbating the gamebirds’ declines. Human hunting of Cooper's hawk declined when governmental protection of the species was instituted in the late 1960s (nearly two decades after some less controversial birds of prey species were protected in America).


title: Cooper's hawk

text: However, instead of the expected gradual recovery, in the 1960s to 1970s, the breeding success rate dropped, in almost certain correlation with man's use of chemical biocides, mostly DDT. Raptorial birds which predominantly prey on either birds or fish were severely affected by the DDT biocide. The concentrations of organochlorines like DDT were high in all American "Accipiters", averaging at intermediate levels in the Cooper's (0.11 mg/kg) but could include the highest known in the "Accipiters" at up to 1.5 mg/kg. A considerable average reduction in eggshell thickness was measured to average at around 7%. A particularly severe reduction in eggshell thickness was recorded in New York state, at an average of 19.02%. The survival of the species, especially in the eastern part of the continent, was seriously questioned in the 1960s and 1970s. Fewer dramatic ebbs were detected during the height of DDT use in the western part of North America overall, perhaps because of less overall reliance on bird prey. Nonetheless, 11 of 16 eggs in Arizona and New Mexico broke due to this cause. Subsequent to the prohibition of DDT use in North America, the population increased exponentially in the 1980s and 1990s and ultimately was thought to stabilize. Data from Hawk Mountain Sanctuary shows that the Cooper's hawk has recovered from DDT more gradually than the sharp-shinned hawk here.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: In the 1990s, it was estimated that the Cooper's hawks may number "well into six figures" due to their regular distribution over 8 million square kilometers. Today, the Cooper's hawk is thought to number around 800,000 in the United States and Canada. These estimates were gained cross-referencing the number of hectares per active nest, which was in the range of in the western states and in the Midwestern and eastern states, as well as data from Christmas Bird Counts and migration counts. Evidence from long-time migration counts at Bake Oven Knob show slight peaks at intervals of 3 to 4 years, however no dramatic declines have been detected since the 1980s. Following their historic decline, Breeding Bird Surveys have tracked strong increases of the breeding population (upward trends from 1.2% in California to 4.4% in Pennsylvania) in six states, with a 2.2% increase overall, and similar trends in multiple other states. In many states (Arizona, California, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico and North Dakota) the numbers are probably similar or greater to those prior to 1945. It is thought that the population of Cooper's hawks in Wisconsin is nearly saturated relative to the landmass of the state, after a rough 25-fold increase since the late 1970s. Based largely on data from well-known populations such as Tucson and Milwaukee, some authors opine that the Cooper's hawk may be the most common raptor in American urban areas today, although surely other common raptorial birds such as red-tailed hawks, American kestrels and turkey vultures ("Cathartes aura") may easily rival them in this regard.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Shooting is now a generally insignificant cause of mortality though is still sometimes reported. Despite the declining effect of pesticides on the Cooper's hawk's overall population, lingering harmful effect from dieldrin has been indicated in some hawks in British Columbia and recently some hawks have been killed by the pesticide warfarin. Bioaccumulation of pollutants may still have considerable effect on this species. Declines due to pollutants are seemingly occurring for Cooper's hawks living in Vancouver. Recent cases of cyanide poisoning of Cooper's hawks have been reported. Lead poisoning can sometimes threaten Cooper's hawks, through lead bullets left in dead or injured game. Most urban-related mortality for Cooper's hawks is likely to be collisions with manmade objects. These are mostly wire strikes (with or without resulting electrocution), automobile collisions and window strikes or with other parts of manmade structure while distractingly hunting. 70.8% of diagnosed mortality for Cooper's hawks of yearling age or older in Tucson was from such collisions. In less developed regions, such as much of Montana, the rate of wire collisions and electrocutions was considerably lower for Cooper's hawks than for various other birds of prey who are either larger-bodied and/or use less forested areas. Cooper's hawks found in the vicinity of airports are at risk of bird strike with aircraft, therefore 185 Cooper's were translocated away from these areas (the 5th most frequently translocated raptor species). A similar translocation effort away from the Los Angeles basin around the Los Angeles International Airport translocated 349 Cooper's hawks (about a fifth of all translocated raptors), apparently successfully. Cooper's hawks are sometimes displaced by the placement of wind farms, with studies indicating that the Cooper's need about seven years to locally recover from such displacement. Synurbization has been detected in Cooper's hawks as, despite the dangers of various kinds of collisions, it has been found that in favorable urban areas, hawks of the species can seem to breed more closer to one another, gather more food and produce more young on average than those outside such areas. Even New York City has seen (if erratically present) since the late 1990s, a return of nesting Cooper's hawks.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Logging may decrease some populations but the overall effect it has on Cooper's hawks is generally considered unknown. As with all "Accipiters", Cooper's hawks can presumably only withstand a certain level of loss of habitat before an area becomes essentially unlivable. Studies in Arizona determined that heavily grazed agricultural areas were favored over lightly grazed ones due to greater prey concentrations in the latter habitats. On the contrary, in the early 1990s (while the species was generally recovering), the species was considered to be "state-endangered" in New Jersey, with ongoing harmful effects found for poorly-regulated (or entirely unregulated) logging and land development within of active nests. In the Black Hills, harvesting of ponderosa pines appears to be causing the Cooper's and both other species of "Accipiter" to vacate large parts of the forest. It has been recommended that a buffer zone of at least , with a median estimated space needed of about , should be free from human disturbance or development to retain the protected nests of Cooper's hawks. Studies in New Mexico showed that these hawks are reliant on the conservation of riparian woodlands in much of the southern part of the state. Despite the large, productive and genetically diverse population of Cooper's hawks in Tucson, several authors have hypothesized, controversially, that the city is an ecological trap, due to the unsustainably high turnover for nestlings via "Trichomoniasis"-related mortality and for adults via frequent lethal collisions. Other studies support that the number of fatal window and wire collisions of urban-living Cooper's hawks is "excessively high". Quite few Cooper's hawks have ever been gathered for use in falconry. This hawk is fairly unpopular in falconry practices due to its high-strung personality and is additionally considered in such captive conditions as given towards "tyrannical", "hysterical" and "demanding" behaviors, even compared to its similarly disposed larger cousin, the northern goshawk, which is fairly popular in falconry.


title: Cooper's hawk

text: Generally, Cooper's hawks hunt the locally common birds that are available and probably control some birds (such as the more numerous icterids and corvids) that may without the influence of natural predation risk overpopulation and potential harm to ecosystems. However, as an opportunistic natural predator of almost any North American bird smaller than itself, the Cooper's hawk may inadvertently deplete populations of rarer, conservation-dependent species. The American kestrel, whose populations have experienced considerable decrease, may be one species which has suffered from the extensive predation of the recovered Cooper's hawk population. However, there is no evidence that Cooper's hawk predation is one of the leading causes of kestrel declines and data seems to indicate it is, at most, a localized threat. Similarly, the Cooper's hawks occasionally prey upon other threatened bird species, and, although said predation is not a primary cause of concern, may exacerbate the already worrying condition of many declining North American birds. Some threatened species known to be thusly hunted by these hawks are greater prairie chicken ("Tympanuchus cupido"), lesser prairie chickens ("Tympanuchus pallidicinctus"), red-headed woodpeckers, Bell's vireo ("Vireo bellii"), Florida scrub jay ("Aphelocoma coerulescens"), wood thrush ("Hylocichla mustelina") (the Cooper's being identified as one three major nest predators along with blue jays and raccoons), golden-winged warbler ("Vermivora chrysoptera"), cerulean warbler ("Setophaga cerulea") and golden-cheeked warbler ("Setophaga chrysoparia").


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subsequently split into the states of Baden-Durlach and Baden-Baden, which were reunified in 1771. It then became the much-enlarged Grand Duchy of Baden after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803 to 1806 and was a sovereign country until it joined the German Empire in 1871. In 1918, it became part of the Weimar Republic as the Republic of Baden. Baden was bordered to the north by the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt; to the west, along most of its length, by the river Rhine, which separated Baden from the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate and Alsace in modern France; to the south by Switzerland; and to the east by the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Bavaria.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: After World War II, the French military government in 1945 created the state of Baden (originally known as "South Baden") out of the southern half of the former Baden, with Freiburg as its capital. This portion of the former Baden was declared in its 1947 constitution to be the true successor of the old Baden. The northern half of the old Baden was combined with northern Württemberg, becoming part of the American military zone, and formed the state of Württemberg-Baden. Both Baden and Württemberg-Baden became states of West Germany upon its formation in 1949.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In 1952 Baden merged with Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (southern Württemberg and the former Prussian exclave of Hohenzollern) to form Baden-Württemberg. This is the only merger of states that has taken place in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The unofficial anthem of Baden is called "Badnerlied" (Song of the People of Baden) and consists of four or five traditional verses. However, over the years, many more verses have been added – there are collections with up to 591 verses of the anthem.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Baden came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subsequently split into various smaller territories that were unified in 1771. In 1803 Baden was raised to Electoral dignity within the Holy Roman Empire. Upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Baden became the much-enlarged Grand Duchy of Baden. In 1815 it joined the German Confederation. During the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, Baden was a centre of revolutionist activities. In 1849, in the course of the Baden Revolution, it was the only German state that became a republic for a short while, under the leadership of Lorenzo Brentano. The revolution in Baden was suppressed mainly by Prussian troops.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The Grand Duchy of Baden remained a sovereign country until it joined the German Empire in 1871. After the revolution of 1918, Baden became part of the Weimar Republic as the Republic of Baden.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792 saw Baden joining the First Coalition against France. The conflict devastated the margraviate's countryside. Baden was defeated in 1796 with Margrave Charles Frederick being compelled to pay an indemnity and cede his territories on the left bank of the Rhine to France. In 1803, largely owing to the good offices of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Charles Frederick received the bishopric of Konstanz, part of the Rhenish Palatinate, and other smaller districts, together with the dignity of a prince-elector. Baden then changed sides in 1805 to join France under Napoleon in the War of the Third Coalition. France and its allies won the war, and in the Peace of Pressburg the same year, Baden obtained the Breisgau and other territories in Further Austria at the expense of the Austrian Empire. In 1806, Charles Frederick joined the Confederation of the Rhine, declared himself a sovereign prince and grand duke, and received additional territory.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Baden continued to assist France militarily, and by the Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, it was rewarded with accessions of territory at the expense of the Kingdom of Württemberg. Having quadrupled the area of Baden, Charles Frederick died in June 1811, and was succeeded by his grandson Charles, who was married to Stéphanie de Beauharnais (1789–1860) a cousin of French empress Josephine's first husband and adopted daughter of Napoleon.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Charles fought for his father-in-law until after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, when he joined the Sixth Coalition.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In 1815 Baden became a member of the German Confederation established by the Act of 8 June, annexed to the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna of 9 June. However, in the haste of winding up the Congress, the question of the succession to the grand duchy did not get settled, a matter that would soon become acute.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The treaty of 16 April 1816, by which the territorial disputes between Austria and Bavaria were settled, guaranteed the succession of the Baden Palatinate to King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, upon the expected event of the extinction of the line of Zähringen. As a counter to this, in 1817, the Grand Duke Charles issued a pragmatic sanction ("Hausgesetz") declaring the counts of Hochberg, the issue of a morganatic marriage between the grand-duke Charles Frederick and Luise Geyer von Geyersberg (created countess Hochberg), capable of succeeding to the crown. A controversy between Bavaria and Baden ensued, which was only decided in favour of the Hochberg claims by a treaty signed by Baden and the four great powers at Frankfurt on 10 July 1819.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Meanwhile, the dispute had wide-ranging effects. In order to secure popular support for the Hochberg heir, in 1818 Grand Duke Charles granted to the grand duchy, under Article XIII of the Act of Confederation, a liberal constitution, under which two chambers were constituted and their assent declared necessary for legislation and taxation. The outcome was important far beyond the narrow limits of the duchy, as all of Germany watched the constitutional experiments in the southern states.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In Baden, the conditions were not favourable for success. During the revolutionary period, the people had fallen completely under the influence of French ideas, and this was sufficiently illustrated by the temper of the new chambers, which tended to model their activity on the proceedings of the National Convention (1792–1795) in the earlier days of the French Revolution. Additionally, the new Grand Duke Louis I (ruled 1818–1830), who had succeeded in 1818, was unpopular, and the administration was in the hands of hide-bound and inefficient bureaucrats.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The result was a deadlock. Even before the promulgation of the Carlsbad Decrees in October 1819, the Grand Duke had prorogued the chambers after three months of unproductive debate. The reaction that followed was as severe in Baden as elsewhere in Germany, and culminated in 1823 when, on the refusal of the chambers to vote on the military budget, the Grand Duke dissolved them and levied the taxes on his own authority. In January 1825, owing to official pressure, only three Liberals were returned to the chamber. A law was passed making the budget presentable only every three years, and the constitution ceased to have any active existence.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In 1830 Grand Duke Louis was succeeded by his half-brother Grand Duke Leopold (ruled 1830–1852), the first of the Höchberg line. The July Revolution (1830) in France did not cause any disturbances in Baden, but the new Grand Duke showed liberal tendencies from the beginning. The elections of 1830 proceeded without interference, and resulted in the return of a Liberal majority. The next few years saw the introduction, under successive ministries, of Liberal reforms in the constitution, in criminal and civil law, and in education. In 1832, the adhesion of Baden to the Prussian "Zollverein" did much for the material prosperity of the country.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: By 1847, radicalism once more began to raise its head in Baden. On 12 September 1847, a popular demonstration held at Offenburg passed resolutions demanding the conversion of the regular army into a national militia, which should take an oath to the constitution, as well as a progressive income tax, and a fair adjustment of the interests of capital and labour.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The news of the revolution of February 1848 in Paris brought agitation to a head. Numerous public meetings were held and the Offenburg programme was adopted. On 4 March 1848, under the influence of popular excitement, the lower chamber accepted this programme almost unanimously. As in other German states, the government bowed to the storm, proclaimed an amnesty and promised reforms. The ministry remodelled itself in a more Liberal direction, and sent a new delegate to the federal diet at Frankfurt, empowered to vote for the establishment of a parliament for a united Germany.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Disorder, fomented by republican agitators, continued nonetheless. The efforts of the government to suppress the agitators with the aid of federal troops led to an armed insurrection, which was mastered without much difficulty. The uprising, led by Friedrich Hecker and Franz Joseph Trefzger, was lost at Kandern on 20 April 1848. Freiburg, which they held, fell on 24 April and, on 27 April, a Franco–German "legion", which had invaded Baden from Strasbourg, was routed at Dossenbach.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In the beginning of 1849, however, the issue of a new constitution in accordance with the resolutions of the Frankfurt parliament, led to more serious trouble. It did little to satisfy the radicals, angered by the refusal of the second chamber to agree to their proposal for the summoning of a constituent assembly on 10 February, 1849.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The new insurrection that broke out proved a more formidable affair than the first. A military mutiny at Rastatt on 11 May showed that the army sympathised with the revolution, which was proclaimed two days later at Offenburg amid tumultuous scenes. Also, on 13 May a mutiny at Karlsruhe forced Grand Duke Leopold to flee, and the next day his ministers followed. Meanwhile, a committee of the diet under Lorenz Brentano (1813–1891), who represented the more moderate radicals against the republicans, established itself in the capital in an attempt to direct affairs pending the establishment of a provisional government.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: This was accomplished on 1 June and, on 10 June, the "constituent diet", consisting entirely of the most "advanced" politicians, assembled. It had little chance of doing more than make speeches. The country remained in the hands of an armed mob of civilians and mutinous soldiers. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke of Baden had joined with Bavaria in requesting the armed intervention of Prussia, which Berlin granted on the condition that Baden would join the Alliance of the Three Kings.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: From this moment, the revolution in Baden was doomed, and with it the revolution across Germany. The Prussians, under Prince William (afterwards William I, German Emperor), invaded Baden in the middle of June 1849. Afraid of a military escalation, Brentano reacted hesitantly – too hesitantly for the more radical Gustav Struve and his followers, who overthrew him and established a Pole, Ludwig Mieroslawski (1814–1878), in his place.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Mieroslawski reduced the insurgents to some semblance of order. On 20 June, 1849, he met the Prussians at Waghausel, and suffered complete defeat. On 25 June, Prince William entered Karlsruhe and, at the end of the month, the members of the provisional government, who had taken refuge at Freiburg, dispersed. The insurgent leaders who were caught, notably the ex-officers, suffered military execution. The army was dispersed among Prussian garrison towns, and Prussian troops occupied Baden for a time. Franz Trefzger managed to escape to Switzerland. In the months following, no fewer than 80,000 people left Baden for America. Many of these migrants would later participate in the American Civil War as abolitionists and union soldiers.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Grand Duke Leopold returned on 10 August and at once dissolved the diet. The following elections resulted in a majority favourable to the new ministry, which passed a series of laws of a reactionary tendency with a view to strengthening the government.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Grand Duke Leopold died on 24 April 1852 and was succeeded by his second son, Frederick, as regent, since the eldest, Louis II, Grand Duke of Baden (died 22 January 1858), was incapable of ruling. The internal affairs of Baden during the period that followed have little general interest. In the greater politics of Germany, Baden between 1850 and 1866 was a consistent supporter of Austria. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria's contingents, under Prince William, had two sharp engagements with the Prussian army of the Main. However, on 24 July 1866, two days before the Battle of Werbach, the second chamber petitioned the Grand Duke to end the war and enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with Prussia.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Grand Duke Frederick I (ruled 1856–1907) opposed the war with Prussia from the first, but yielded to popular resentment at the policy of Prussia on the Schleswig-Holstein question. The ministry, as one, resigned. Baden announced her withdrawal from the German Confederation and, on 17 August 1866, signed a treaty of peace and alliance with Prussia. Bismarck himself resisted the adhesion of Baden to the North German Confederation. He had no wish to give Napoleon III of France a good excuse for intervention, but the opposition of Baden to the formation of a South German confederation made the union inevitable. The troops of Baden took a conspicuous share in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and it was Grand Duke Frederick of Baden, who, in the historic assembly of the German princes at Versailles, was the first to hail the king of Prussia as German emperor.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The internal politics of Baden, both before and after 1870, centered in the main around the question of religion. The signing on 28 June 1859 of a concordat with the Holy See, which placed education under the oversight of the clergy and facilitated the establishment of religious institutes, led to a constitutional struggle. This struggle ended in 1863 with the victory of secular principles, making the communes responsible for education, though admitting the priests to a share in the management. The quarrel between secularism and Catholicism, however, did not end. In 1867, on the accession to the premiership of Julius von Jolly (1823–1891), several constitutional changes in a secular direction occurred: responsibility of ministers, freedom of the press, and compulsory education. On 6 September 1867, a law compelled all candidates for the priesthood to pass government examinations. The archbishop of Freiburg resisted, and, on his death in April 1868, the see remained vacant.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In 1869, the introduction of civil marriage did not allay the strife, which reached its climax after the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility in 1870. The "Kulturkampf" raged in Baden, as in the rest of Germany, and, here as elsewhere, the government encouraged the formation of Old Catholic communities. Not until 1880, after the fall of the ministry of Jolly, did Baden reconcile with Rome. In 1882 the archbishopric of Freiburg was again filled.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The political tendency of Baden, meanwhile, mirrored that of all Germany. In 1892 the National Liberals had but a majority of one in the diet. From 1893, they could stay in power only with the aid of the Conservatives and, in 1897, a coalition of the Catholic Centre Party, Socialists, Social Democrats and Radicals ("Freisinnige") won a majority for the opposition in the chamber.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Amid all these contests, the statesmanlike moderation of the Grand Duke Frederick won him universal esteem. By the treaty under which Baden had become an integral part of the German Empire in 1871, he had reserved only the exclusive right to tax beer and spirits. The army, the post-office, railways and the conduct of foreign relations passed to the effective control of Prussia.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In his relations with the German Empire, too, Frederick proved himself more of a great German noble than a sovereign prince actuated by particularist ambitions. His position as husband of the emperor William I's only daughter, Louise (whom he had married in 1856), gave him a peculiar influence in the councils of Berlin. When, on 20 September 1906, the Grand Duke celebrated at once the jubilee of his reign and his golden wedding anniversary, all Europe honoured him. King Edward VII appointed him, by the hands of the Duke of Connaught, a Knight of the Order of the Garter. But more significant, perhaps, was the tribute paid by "Le Temps", the leading Parisian paper:


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Nothing more clearly demonstrates the sterile paradox of the Napoleonic work than the history of the Grand Duchy. It was Napoleon, and he alone, who created this whole state in 1803 to reward in the person of the little margrave of Baden a relative of the emperor of Russia. It was he who after Austerlitz aggrandized the margravate at the expense of Austria; transformed it into a sovereign principality and raised it to a Grand Duchy. It was he too who, by the secularization on the one hand and by the dismemberment of Württemberg on the other, gave the Grand Duke 500,000 new subjects. He believed that the recognition of the prince and the artificial ethnical formation of the principality would be pledges of security for France. But in 1813 Baden joined the coalition, and since then that nation created of odds and ends ("de bric et de broc") and always handsomely treated by us, had not ceased to take a leading part in the struggles against our country. The Grand Duke Frederick, Grand Duke by the will of Napoleon, has done France all the harm he could. But French opinion itself renders justice to the probity of his character and to the ardour of his patriotism, and nobody will feel surprise at the homage with which Germany feels bound to surround his old age.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Grand Duke Frederick I died at Mainau on 28 September 1907. He was succeeded by his son, the Grand Duke Frederick II (ruled 1907–1918, died 1928).


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The Grand Duchy of Baden was a hereditary monarchy with executive power vested in the Grand Duke; legislative authority was shared between him and a representative assembly ("Landtag") consisting of two chambers.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The upper chamber included all the princes of the ruling family of full age, the heads of all the mediatized families, the Archbishop of Freiburg, the president of the Protestant Evangelical Church of Baden, a deputy from each of the universities and the technical high school, eight members elected by the territorial nobility for four years, three representatives elected by the chamber of commerce, two by that of agriculture, one by the trades, two mayors of municipalities, and eight members (two of them legal functionaries) nominated by the Grand Duke.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The lower chamber consisted of 73 popular representatives, of whom 24 were elected by the burgesses of certain communities, and 49 by rural communities. Every citizen of 25 years of age, who had not been convicted and was not a pauper, had a vote. The elections were, however, indirect. The citizens selected the "Wahlmänner" (deputy electors), the latter selecting the representatives. The chambers met at least every two years. The lower chambers were elected for four years, half the members retiring every two years.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The executive consisted of four departments: the interior, foreign and grand-ducal affairs; finance; justice; and ecclesiastical affairs and education.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The chief sources of revenue were direct and indirect taxes, the railways and domains. The railways were operated by the state, and formed the only source of major public debt, about 22 million pounds sterling.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The supreme courts lay in Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Offenburg, Heidelberg, Mosbach, Waldshut, Konstanz, and Mannheim, from which appeals passed to the "Reichsgericht" (the supreme tribunal) in Leipzig.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: At the beginning of the 19th century, Baden was a margraviate, with an area of barely 1,300 sq mi (3,400 km) and a population of 210,000. Subsequently, the grand duchy acquired more territory so that, by 1905, it had 5,823 sq mi (15,082 km) and a population of 2,010,728. Of that number, 61% were Roman Catholics, 37% Protestants, 1.5% Jews, and the remainder of other religions. At that time, about half of the population was rural, living in communities of less than 2,000; the density of the rest was about .


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The capital of the duchy was Karlsruhe, and important towns other than those listed included Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Bruchsal, Lahr and Offenburg. The population was most thickly clustered in the north and near the Swiss city of Basel. The inhabitants of Baden are of various origins, those to the south of Murg being descended from the Alemanni and those to the north from the Franks, while the Swabian Plateau derives its name from the adjacent German tribe (Schwaben), who lived in Württemberg.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The Grand Duchy had an area of and consisted of a considerable portion of the eastern half of the fertile valley of the Rhine and of the mountains which form its boundary.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The mountainous part was by far the most extensive, forming nearly 80% of the whole area. From Lake Constance in the south to the river Neckar in the north is a portion of the Black Forest (), which is divided by the valley of the Kinzig into two districts of different elevation. To the south of the Kinzig the mean height is ), and the highest summit, the Feldberg, reaches about , while to the north the mean height is only , and the Hornisgrinde, the culminating point of the whole, does not exceed . To the north of the Neckar is the Odenwald Range, with a mean of , and in the Katzenbuckel, an extreme of . Lying between the Rhine and the Dreisam is the Kaiserstuhl, an independent volcanic group, nearly 16 km in length and 8 km in breadth, the highest point of which is .


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The greater part of Baden belongs to the basin of the Rhine, which receives upwards of twenty tributaries from the highlands; the north-eastern portion of the territory is also watered by the Main and the Neckar. A part, however, of the eastern slope of the Black Forest belongs to the basin of the Danube, which there takes its rise in a number of mountain streams. Among the numerous lakes which belonged to the duchy are the Mummelsee, Wildersee, Eichenersee and Schluchsee, but none of them is of any significant size. Lake Constance ("Bodensee") belongs partly to the German federal states ("Länder") of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, and partly to Austria and Switzerland.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Owing to its physical configuration, Baden presents great extremes of heat and cold. The Rhine valley is the warmest district in Germany, but the higher elevations of the Black Forest record the greatest degrees of cold experienced in the South. The mean temperature of the Rhine valley is approximately and that of the high table-land . July is the hottest month and January the coldest.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The mineral wealth of Baden was not great, but iron, coal, lead and zinc of excellent quality were produced; silver, copper, gold, cobalt, vitriol and sulfur were obtained in small quantities. Peat was found in abundance, as well as gypsum, china clay, potter's earth and salt. The mineral springs of Baden are still very numerous and have acquired great celebrity, those of Baden-Baden, Badenweiler, Antogast, Griesbach, Friersbach and Peterthal being the most frequented.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: In the valleys the soil is particularly fertile, yielding luxuriant crops of wheat, maize, barley, spelt, rye, beans, potatoes, flax, hemp, hops, beetroot and tobacco; and even in the more mountainous part, rye, wheat and oats are extensively cultivated. There is a considerable extent of pasture-land, and the rearing of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats is extensively practised. Of game, deer, boar, snipe and wild partridges are fairly abundant, while the mountain streams yield trout of excellent quality. Viticulture is increasing, and the wines continue to sell well. The Baden wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of vineyard surface. The gardens and the orchards supply an abundance of fruit, especially sweet cherries, plums, apples and walnuts, and bee-keeping is practised throughout the country. A greater proportion of Baden than any other south German state is occupied by forests. In these, the predominant trees are European beech and silver fir, but many others, such as sweet chestnut, Scots pine, Norway spruce and the exotic coast Douglas-fir, are well represented. A third, at least, of the annual timber production is exported.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Around 1910, 56.8% of the region's land mass was cultivated and 38% was forested. Before 1870, the agricultural sector was responsible for the bulk of the grand duchy's wealth, but this was superseded by industrial production. The chief products were machinery, woollen and cotton goods, silk ribbons, paper, tobacco, china, leather, glass, clocks, jewellery, and chemicals. Beet sugar was also manufactured on a large scale, as were wooden ornaments and toys, music boxes and organs.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The exports of Baden consisted mostly of the above goods and were considerable, but the bulk of its trade consisted of transit. The grand duchy had many railways and roads, as well as the Rhine for transporting goods by ship. Railways were run by the state as the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway ("Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen"). A rail-line ran mostly parallel with the Rhine, with oblique branches from East to West.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: Mannheim was the great market centre for exports down the Rhine and had substantial river traffic. It was also the chief manufacturing town for the duchy and an important administrative centre for its northern region.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: There were numerous educational institutions in Baden. There were three universities, one Protestant in Heidelberg, one Roman Catholic in Freiburg im Breisgau, and a research university in Karlsruhe.


title: Grand Duchy of Baden

text: The grand-duke was a Protestant; under him, the Evangelical Church was governed by a nominated council and a synod consisting of a prelate, 48 elected and 7 nominated lay and clerical members. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Freiburg is Metropolitan of the Upper Rhine.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Deep Water is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith, first published in 1957 by Harper & Brothers. It is Highsmith's fifth published novel, the working title originally being "The Dog in the Manger." It was brought back into print in the United States in 2003 by W. W. Norton & Company.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Vic and Melinda Van Allen are a couple in the small town of Little Wesley. Their loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family. Vic becomes fascinated with the unsolved murder of one of Melinda's former lovers, Malcolm McRae, and, in order to successfully drive away her current fling, takes credit for the killing. When the real murderer is apprehended, Vic's claims are interpreted by the community as dark jokes.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Melinda begins a new relationship with a local pianist, Charley De Lisle. One night, at a party given at the home of one of their neighbours, the Cowans, Vic and Charley find themselves alone in the Cowans' backyard swimming pool. Impulsively, Vic drowns Charley, exits the pool, and feigns surprise when his body is discovered. His death is attributed to a cramp, though Melinda is immediately suspicious of her husband.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Vic and many of his neighbours begin to move on from the event, though some particularly Don Wilson, a local pulp writer begin to idly suspect him of foul play. Melinda demands Vic admit his guilt and accuses him in front of their friends, though Vic is undaunted, finding superiority in his successful crime. A new neighbour, Harold Carpenter, appears in town, claiming to be researching psychiatry at a local asylum. Vic deduces that he is really a private detective hired by Don and Melinda. Carpenter leaves town, unable to nail down anything solid against Vic.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Melinda eventually finds a new lover, a surveyor from New York named Tony Cameron. Vic privately offers Melinda a divorce and she finally accepts, saying that Tony has offered to take her to his next assignment in Mexico. Vic runs into Tony in town and offers him a lift; he drives to the local quarry. There, Vic murders him by throwing him off a cliff, then weighs his body and hides it in the water.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: An investigation is opened into Tony's sudden disappearance, though many of the neighbours refuse to co-operate due to Vic's good standing and the police's implication that Tony and Melinda were planning to run away together. Vic is again cleared of much suspicion. To his surprise, in the wake of Tony's death, Melinda begins to act more courteously, even loving, toward him, suggesting that she wishes for them to start over again. When she attempts to use this new openness to draw Vic into confessing to the murders of Charley and Tony, Vic suspects it to be a last-ditch ruse concocted by Melinda and Don.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Melinda finally implements a plan to bring Vic and Don to the quarry at the same time, where Don finds blood stains and Vic checks the water to ensure Tony's body has not resurfaced. Vic knows, as the two of them leave, that Don will be going directly to the police. Vic returns home and, in a sudden rage, strangles Melinda to death. At that moment Don arrives with a policeman, and Vic is led away.


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Anthony Boucher reviewing the novel in "The New York Times", praised Highsmith's "coming of age as a novelist", and noted that "Deep Water" was "incomparably stronger in subtlety and depth of characterisation" than her first novel, "Strangers on a Train".


title: Deep Water (Highsmith novel)

text: Author Gillian Flynn has called the novel one of her favourites. In an interview with "The Wall Street Journal", Flynn stated:About ten or fifteen years ago, I came across it in a used-book store. I remember thinking, "Why has no one told me about it?" People know her for Ripley or "Strangers on a Train" but don't know a lot of her other stuff. And, it being a marital thriller where all the phobias and fears and darkness are based mostly inside a couple's home, that has always interested me, that in-your-face warfare between a husband and wife.


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the "de facto" unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; to remove the obstacle that this consanguinity would otherwise have posed to their marriage under canon law, they were given a papal dispensation by Sixtus IV. They married on October 19, 1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was eighteen years old and Ferdinand a year younger. It is generally accepted by most scholars that the unification of Spain can essentially be traced back to the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella.


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: Spain was formed as a dynastic union of two crowns rather than a unitary state, as Castile and Aragon remained separate kingdoms until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707–16. The court of Ferdinand and Isabella was constantly on the move, in order to bolster local support for the crown from local feudal lords. The title of "Catholic King and Queen" was officially bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella by Pope Alexander VI in 1494, in recognition of their defence of the Catholic faith within their realms.


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: At the time of their marriage on October 19, 1469, Isabella was eighteen years old and the heiress presumptive to the Crown of Castile, while Ferdinand was seventeen and heir apparent to the Crown of Aragon. They met for the first time in Valladolid in 1469 and married within a week. From the start, they had a close relationship and worked well together. Both knew that the crown of Castile was "the prize, and that they were both jointly gambling for it". However, it was a step toward the unification of the lands on the Iberian peninsula, which would eventually become Spain.


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: They were second cousins, so in order to marry they needed a papal dispensation. Pope Paul II, an Italian pope opposed to Aragon's influence on the Mediterranean and to the rise of monarchies strong enough to challenge the Pope, refused to grant one, so they falsified a papal bull of their own. Even though the bull is known to be false, it is uncertain who was the material author of the falsification. Some experts point at Carrillo de Acuña, Archbishop of Toledo, and others point at Antonio Veneris. Pope Paul II remained a bitter enemy of Spain and the monarchy for all his life, and the following quote is attributed to him: "May all Spaniards be cursed by God, schismatics and heretics, the seed of Jews and Moors",


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: Isabella's claims to it were not secure, since her marriage to Ferdinand enraged her half-brother Henry IV of Castile and he withdrew his support for her being his heiress presumptive that had been codified in the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando. Henry instead recognised Joanna of Castile, born during his marriage to Joanna of Portugal, but whose paternity was in doubt, since Henry was rumored to be impotent. When Henry died in 1474, Isabella asserted her claim to the throne, which was contested by thirteen-year-old Joanna. Joanna sought the aid of her husband (who was also her uncle), Afonso V of Portugal, to claim the throne. This dispute between rival claimants led to the War of 1475–79. Isabella called on the aid of Aragon, with her husband, the heir apparent, and his father, Juan II of Aragon providing it. Although Aragon provided support for Isabella's cause, Isabella's supporters had extracted concessions, Isabella was acknowledged as the sole heir to the crown of Castile. Juan II died in 1479, and Ferdinand succeeded to the throne in January 1479.


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: In September 1479, Portugal and the Catholic Monarchs of Aragon and Castile resolved major issues between them through the Treaty of Alcáçovas, including the issue of Isabella's rights to the crown of Castile. Through close cooperation, the royal couple were successful in securing political power in the Iberian peninsula. Ferdinand's father had advised the couple that "neither was powerful without the other". Though their marriage united the two kingdoms, leading to the beginnings of modern Spain, they ruled independently and their kingdoms retained part of their own regional laws and governments for the next centuries.


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: The coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs was designed by Antonio de Nebrija with elements to show their cooperation and working in tandem. The royal motto they shared, "Tanto monta" ("as much one as the other"), came to signify their cooperation." The motto was originally used by Ferdinand as an allusion to the Gordian knot: "Tanto monta, monta tanto, cortar como desatar" ("It's one and the same, cutting or untying"), but later adopted as an expression of equality of the monarchs: "Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando" ("It's one and the same, Isabella the same as Ferdinand").


title: Catholic Monarchs of Spain

text: Their emblems or heraldic devices, seen at the bottom of the coat of arms, were a yoke and a sheaf of arrows. "Y" and "F" are the initials of Ysabel (spelling at the time) and Fernando. A double yoke is worn by a team of oxen, emphasizing the couple's cooperation. Isabella's emblem of arrows showed the armed power of the crown, "a warning to Castilians not acknowledging the reach of royal authority or that greatest of royal functions, the right to mete out justice" by force of violence. The iconography of the royal crest was widely reproduced and was found on various works of art. These badges were later used by the fascist Spanish political party Falange, which claimed to represent the inherited glory and the ideals of the Catholic Monarchs.