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THE BLACK WARRIOR. 



Falco Harlani. 



PLATE LXXXVI. Male and Female. 



Long before I discovered this fine Hawk, I was anxious to have an 

 opportunity of honouring some new species of the feathered tribe with the 

 name of my excellent friend Dr Richard Harlan of Philadelphia. This 

 I might have done sooner, had I not waited until a species should occur, 

 which in its size and importance should bear some proportion to my gra- 

 titude toward that learned and accomplished friend. 



The Hawks now before you were discovered near St FrancisviUe, 

 in Louisiana, during my late sojourn in that State, and had bred in the 

 neighbourhood of the place where I procured them, for two seasons, al- 

 though they had always eluded my search, until, at last, as I was crossing 

 a large cotton field, one afternoon, I saw the female represented in the Plate 

 standing perched on the top of a high belted tree in an erect and com- 

 manding attitude. It looked so like the Black Hawk {Falco n'iger) of 

 WiLSON, that I apprehended what I had heard respecting it might prove 

 incorrect. I approached it, however, when, as if it suspected my evil in- 

 tentions, it flew oiF, but after at first sailing as if with the view of escaping 

 from me, passed over my head, when I shot at it, and brought it winged 

 to the ground. No sooner had I inspected its eye, its bill, and particu- 

 larly its naked legs, than I felt assvu-ed that it was, as had been repre- 

 sented by those persons who had spoken to me of its exploits, a new spe- 

 cies. I drew it whilst alive ; but my intentions of preserving it and car- 

 rying it to England as a present to the Zoological Society were frustrated 

 by its refusing food. It died in a few days, when I preserved its skin, 

 which, along with those of other rare birds, I have since given to the 

 British Museum, through my friend J. G. Children, Esq. of that In- 

 stitution. 



A few days afterwards I saw the male bird perched on the same tree, 

 but was vmable to approach him so long as I had a gun, although he fre- 

 quently allowed me and my wife to pass close to the foot of the tree when 

 we were on horseback and unarmed. I followed it in vain for nearly a 

 fortnight, from one field to another, and from tree to tree, until our phy- 



