

SPECIES 14. FALCO NIGER.* 



BLACK HAWK. 



[Plate LIIL Fig. 1.] 



PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 404. 



THIS, and the other two figures in the same plate, are re- 

 duced from the large drawings, which were taken of the exact 

 size of nature, to one half their dimensions. I regret the ne- 

 cessity which obliges me to contract the figures of these birds, 

 by which much of the grandeur of the originals is lost; particu- 

 lar attention, however, has been paid, in the reduction, to the 

 accurate representation of all their parts. 



This is a remarkably shy and wary bird, found most fre- 

 quently along the marshy shores of our large rivers; feeds on 

 mice, frogs and moles; sails much, and sometimes at a great 

 height; has been seen to kill a duck on wing; sits by the side 

 of the marshes, on a stake, for an hour at a time, in an almost 

 perpendicular position, as if dozing; flies with great ease, and 

 occasionally with great swiftness, seldom flapping the wings; 

 seems particularly fond of river shores, swamps and marshes; 

 is most numerous with us in winter, and but rarely seen in 

 summer; is remarkable for the great size of its eye, length of 

 its wings, and shortness of its toes. The breadth of its head is 

 likewise uncommon. 



The Black Hawk is twenty-one inches long, and four feet 

 two inches in extent; bill bluish black; cere and sides of the 

 mouth orange yellow; feet the same; eye very large, iris bright 

 hazel; cartilage overhanging the eye, prominent, of a dull 

 greenish colour; general colour above, brown black, slightly 



* As Wilson suspected, this is the F. Sancti Johannis of Latham. Ind. Orn. 

 p. 34, .Yo 74. GMBL. Syst. i,p. 273, JVb. 92. F. Spadiceus? Id. Ab. 91. 



