220 COOPER'S HAWK. 



Omawhaw (a branch of 



Sioux) Ze-ze-kah, E Say. 



Onondagos (Iroquois) . Netachr6chwa gatschinak, Zeisberger'a Dictionary, 



G MS. 



_ ( cock .... Sukah tingah, E. . . . MS. Voc. 



^^^"^ 1 hen .... Inchuga Sukah, E. . . MS. Voc. 

 Ottos or W^htoktatah 



(Sioux) Wa-ek-kung-ja, E. . . Say. 



Shawanese Pel6wa, G Heckewelder. 



Uchee* Witch-pshah, E. . . . MS. Voc. 



Unquachog (Long Island) Nahiam, E MS. Voc. 



FALCO COOPERII. 



COOPER'S HAWK. 



[Plate X. Fig. 1.] 



BuFFON complained of the difficulty of writing a history of Birds, 

 because he already knew eight hundred species, and supposed that 

 there might actually exist fifteen hundred; or even, said he, venturing 

 as he thought to the limit of probability, two thousand ! What then 

 would be his embarrassment at present, when nearly six thousand 

 species are known, and fresh discoveries are daily augmenting the 

 number ? 



The difiiculties attending a general work on this subject are not 

 perhaps experienced in an equal degree by one who confines himself 

 to the history of a particular group, or of the species inhabiting a 

 single district. Nevertheless, in a work like the present, which is not 

 a monography limited to one genus or family, but embraces within 

 its scope species belonging to all the different tribes, it is requisite, in 

 order to explain their various relations and analogies, that the author 

 should be more or less acquainted with the whole system of nature. To 

 attempt, without the aid of methodical arrangement, a subject so vast, 

 and apparently unlimited, would be hopeless. Hence the importance 

 of a correct system of classification ; and the construction of one which 

 shall exhibit, as far as practicable, the true affinities of objects, has 

 exercised the attention of the most powerful minds, that have been 

 employed in the study of nature. 



That division of the feathered class popularly called Birds of prey, 

 has always been recognised as a separate, and well defined group. In 



* Uchees, a nation of Florida Indians, speaking a curious language, full of par- 

 ticular sounds, not found in any other languages ; they live among the Creeks. 



