

SPECIES 8. FALCO BOREALIS. 



RED-TAILED HAWK. 



[Plate LIL Fig. 1.] 



0rc. Zool. p. 205, JVb. 100. American Buzzard, LATH, i, 50. 

 TURT. Syst. p. 151. F. Jlquilinm, caiida ferrugiriea, Great 

 Eagle Hawk, BAUTRAM, p. 290. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 182. 



THE figure of this bird, and those of the other two Hawka 

 in the same plate, are reduced to exactly half the dimensions of 

 the living subjects. These representations are offered to the 

 public with a confidence in their fidelity; but these, I am sorry 

 to say, are almost all I have to give towards elucidating their 

 history. Birds naturally thinly dispersed over a vast extent of 

 country, retiring during summer to the depth of the forests to 

 breed, approaching the habitations of man, like other thieves 

 and plunderers, with shy and cautious jealousy, seldom permit- 

 ting a near advance, subject to great changes of plumage, and, 

 since the decline of falconry, seldom or never domesticated, offer 

 to those who wish eagerly to investigate their history, and to 

 delineate their particular character and manners, great and in- 

 surmountable difficulties. Little more can be done in such cases 

 than to identify the species, and trace it through the various 

 quarters of the world, where it has been certainly met with. 



The Red-tailed Hawk is most frequently seen in the lower 

 parts of Pennsylvania, during the severity of winter. Among 

 the extensive meadows that border the Schuylkill and Delaware, 

 below Philadelphia, where flocks of Larks, (Jllauda magna) 

 and where mice and moles are in great abundance, many indi- 

 viduals of this Hawk spend the greater part of the winter. 

 Others prowl around the plantations, looking out for vagrant 

 chickens; their method of seizing which, is by sweeping swiftly 

 over the spot, and grappling them with their talons, bearing 



