GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 9 
and other swimming birds; and, if they are not quick in diving, 
seizes them, and rises with them from the water. I have seen this 
hawk come at the report of a gun, and carry off a teal, not thirty 
steps distant from the sportsman who had killed it, with a daring 
assurance as surprising as unexpected. This conduct has been 
observed by many individuals, and is a characteristic trait of the 
species. ‘The largest bird that I have seen this hawk attack and 
grapple with on the wing is the Mallard. 
“The Great-footed Hawk does not, however, content himself 
with waterfowl. He is» generally seen following the flocks of 
pigeons, and even blackbirds, causing great terror in their ranks, 
and forcing them to perform aérial evolutions to escape the grasp 
of his dreaded talons. For several days, I watched one of them 
that had taken a particular fancy to some tame pigeons, to secure 
which it went so far as to enter their house at one of the holes, 
seize a bird, and issue by another hole in an instant, causing such 
terror among the rest as to render me fearful that they would 
abandon the place. However, I fortunately shot the depredator. 
“They occasionally feed on dead fish, that have floated to the 
shores or sand-bars. I saw several of them thus occupied, while 
descending the Mississippi on a journey undertaken expressly for 
the ‘purpose of observing and procuring different specimens of 
birds, and which lasted four months, as I followed the windings 
of that great river, floating down it only a few miles daily. During 
that period, I and my companion counted upwards of fifty of these 
hawks, and killed several; one of which was found to contain in its 
stomach bones of birds, a few downy feathers, the gizzard of a teal, 
and the eyes and many scales of a fish. 
“Whilst in quest of food, the Great-footed Hawk will frequently 
alight on the highest dead branch of a tree, in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of such wet or marshy ground as the common snipe resorts 
to by preference. His head is seen moving in short starts, as if he 
were counting every little space below; and, while so engaged, the 
moment he espies a snipe, down he darts like an arrow, making a 
rustling noise with his wings, that may be heard several hundred 
yards off, seizes the snipe, and flies away to some near wood to 
devour it. 
“Jt is a cleanly bird, in respect to feeding. No sooner is the 
prey dead, than the Falcon turns it belly upwards, and begins to 
