FALCO ANATUM — GREAT FOOTED HAWK. 237 



States, of which the F- nigriceps and polyagrus belong to 

 the Pacilic coast, and were recently described by Cassin. 



Falco Anatum, Bonaparte.— Tre Great Footed Hawk. 



Wilson's Am. Orn., IX-, pi. 76; Audubon's B. of Am., Oct. 

 ed., I., pi. 20. 



This Hawk has, by most writers, been considered iden- 

 tical with its European analogue, the Peregrine Falcon — 

 F. per eg r in Its. Both Wilson and Audubon took this view. 

 Charles Bonaparte was the first who gave it a separate 

 name, and Oassin, in his recent work on the Birds of Cali- 

 fornia and Texas., gives a description of those points in 

 which it differs from the latter bird. 



The great Footed Hawk is one of the swiftest birds known, 

 and is one that destroys chickens, ducks, and every kind 

 of land and water fowl under the size of a Mallard. Its 

 rapacity is great, and in boldness it has few equals. Spe- 

 cimens are more plentiful now than they were thirty or 

 forty years ago. They may often be seen in the neighbor- 

 hood of Cleveland, but are not often shot. Dr. Kirtland 

 shot a fine adult specimen at Poland, Mahoning county, 

 several years ago, in the act of flying away with a half 

 grown chicken. Audubon says he has often observed them 

 flying over the rivers and sheets of water in pursuit of 

 ducks, water hens and other water fowl. When a bird was 

 captured, it was borne, if not too heavy, to the land, and 

 there devoured, and he cites a case in which one of these 

 birds came at the report of a gun and bore off" the game — a 

 Teal — at thirty yards distance from the sportsman. 



We give the following description of the adult from 

 Oassin's Birds of California., as we have no sijecimen 

 from which to give an original description : 



"Frontal band white; top of the head, back, wing cov- 

 erts and rump blueish cinereous, every feather crossed 



