Species XIV. FALCO NIGER* 



BLACK HAWK. 



[Plate LIII. Fig. 1.] 



This, and the other two figures in the same plate, are reduced from 

 the large drawings, which were taken of the exact size of nature, to 

 one-half their dimensions. I regret the necessity which obliges me to 

 contract the figures of these birds, by which much of the grandeur of 

 the originals is lost ; particular attention, however, has been paid, in 

 the reduction, to the accurate representation of all their parts. 



This is a remarkably shy and wary bird, found most frequently along 

 the marshy shores of our large rivers ; feeds on mice, frogs and moles ; 

 sails much, and sometimes at a great height ; has been seen to kill a 

 duck on wing ; sits by the side of the marshes, on a stake, for an hour 

 at a time, in an almost perpendicular position, as if dozing ; flies with 

 great ease, and occasionally with great swiftness, seldom flapping the 

 wings ; seems particularly fond of river shores, swamps and marshes ; 

 is most numerous with us in winter, and but rarely seen in summer ; is 

 remarkable for the great size of its eye, length of its wings, and short- 

 ness of its toes. The breadth of its head is likewise uncommon. 



The Black Hawk is twenty-one inches long, and four feet two inches 

 in extent ; bill bluish black ; cere and sides of the mouth orange yel- 

 low ; feet the same ; eye very large, iris bright hazel ; cartilage over- 

 hanging the eye, prominent, of a dull greenish color ; general color 

 above, brown black, slightly dashed with dirty white ; nape of the neck 

 pure white under the surface ; front white ; whole lower parts black, 

 with slight tinges of brown, and a few circular touches of the same on 

 the femorals ; legs feathered to the toes, and black, touched with 

 brownish ; the wings reach rather beyond the tip of the tail ; the five 

 first primaries are white on their inner vanes ; tail rounded at the end, 

 deep black, crossed with five narrow bands of pure white, and broadly 

 tipped with dull white ; vent black, spotted with white ; inside vanes 

 of the primaries snowy ; cluws black, strong and sharp ; toes remark- 

 ably short. 



I strongly suspect this bird to be of the very same species with the 

 next, though both were found to be males. Although differing greatly 



* As Wilson suspected, this is the F. Sancti Johannis of Latham. Ind. Orn. p. 

 34, No. 74.— Gmel. Syst. i., p. 273, No. 92. F. Spadiceus? Id. No. 91. 



(74) 



