442 BLACK WARRIOR. 



sician, Dr John B. Hereford, knowing my great desire to obtain it, 

 shot it in the wing with a rifle ball, and sent it alive to me. It was still 

 wilder than the female, erected the whole of the feathers of its head, opened 

 its bill, and was ever ready to strike with its talons at any object brought 

 near it. I made my drawing of the male also while stiU ahve. 



This species, although considerably smaller than the Red-tailed Hawk, 

 to which it is allied, is superior to it in flight and daring. Its flight is 

 rapid, greatly protracted, and so powerful as to enable it to seize its prey 

 with apparent ease, or efffect its escape from its stronger antagonist, the 

 Red-tail, which pursues it on all occasions. 



The Black Warrior has been seen to pounce on a fowl, kill it almost 

 instantly, and afterwards drag it along the ground for several hundred 

 yards, when it would conceal it, and return to feed upon it in security. 

 It was not observed to fall on Hares or Squirrels, but at all times evinced 

 a marked preference for common Poultry, Partridges, and the smaller 

 species of Wild Duck. 



I was told that the young birds appeared to be of a leaden-grey co- 

 lour at a distance, but at the approach of winter became as dark as the 

 parents. None of them were to be seen at the time when I procured the 

 latter. Of its nest or eggs nothing is yet known. My friends Messrs 

 Johnson and Carpenter frequently spoke of this Hawk to me imme- 

 diately after my return to Louisiana from Europe, which took place in 

 November 1829. I have a skin of this bird in my possession. Should 

 its nest be discovered, and should I have an opportunity of becoming 

 more acquainted with its habits, I shall not fail to give you an account of 

 my observations. 



Falco Harlaki. 



Adult Male. Plate LXXXVI. Fig. 1. 



Bill short, robust, as broad as deep at the base, compressed towards the 

 end ; upper mandible nearly straight, and sloping in its dorsal outline, 

 curved towards the tip, which is declinate, trigonal, acute, the sides convex, 

 the edges acute, overlapping, with a rounded process on each side ; lower 

 mandible convex in its dorsal outline and on the sides, the tip rounded. 

 Nostrils oval, oblique, in the fore part of the cere. Head very large, 

 neck short, body robust. Feet of ordinary length ; tarsus a little coift- 



