WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 235 



this opportunity of exhorting engravers, draftsmen, and all artists 

 employt'd on works of Natural History, never to depend on what they 

 are accustomed to see, but in all cases to copy faithfully what they have 

 under their eyes ; otherwise, taking for granted what they ought not, 

 they will inevitably fall into these gross errors. Even the accurate 

 Wilson himself, or rather perhaps his engraver, has committed the same 

 error in representing the feet of the Swallow-tailed Hawk. Of whav 

 consequence, will it perhaps be said, is the form of the scales covering 

 the foot of a Hawk ? But these aiford precisely one of the best repre- 

 sentative characters of groups, and it will, therefore, not be thought 

 unnecessary to caution artists in this, and similar cases. 



The young, as described by Temminck, is in a more advanced stage 

 of plumage ; the front, fore part of the neck, thighs, flanks, and under 

 tail-coverts are pure white ; the breast and belly are of the same color, 

 but are marked with reddish spots, and brown lines ; the occiput, nucha, 

 back, and scapulars are brownish, mixed with whitish, and more or less 

 tinged with cinereous ; all these feathers having wide margins of whitish 

 and reddish ; the upper tail-coverts are black, with reddish margins ; 

 the inferior marbled with black and white; the quills are bluish, termi- 

 nated with white ; the tail is of a grayish-white, with black shafts ; all 

 the feathers have dark cinereous towards the point, and are tipped with 

 white. 



This species is an inhabitant of a great portion of the American 

 continent, as the Alcon bianco of Paraguay, so well described by d'Azara, 

 is undoubtedly the same bird. Vieillot undertook to classify it from 

 d'Azara's description, applying to it the name of Milvus leucurus ; but 

 after more attentive consideration, he perceived that it was not a Milvus, 

 but an Elanus. He consequently removed it to that genus, which he 

 called Elanoides, at the same time asserting, that with the Swallow- 

 tailed Hawk, it ought to constitute a different section from the Black- 

 winged Hawk ; from which, upon actual comparison, it is with difficulty 

 shown to be even specifically distinct ! Such are the absurdities into 

 which authors are betrayed through the highly reprehensibfe practice 

 to which some are addicted, of attempting to classify, and name, animals 

 they have never seen, from the descriptions or mere indications of 

 travellers. Though by such means, they may sometimes gain the credit 

 of introducing a new species, and thus deprive future observers who 

 may risk their fortunes, or even their lives, in pursuit of imperfectly 

 known animals, of their best reward, they cannot fail to incur the 

 merited reprobation of all honorable and fair-dealing naturalists. 



Though this bird ranges so widely over the American continent, it is 

 everywhere a rare species, and in the United States appears to be con- 

 fined to the southern extremity. The specimen figured in the plate of 

 the natural size, was shot in December, in the neighborhood of St. 



