GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 25 



When the sportsmen perceive the hawk knock down a duck, they 

 frequently disappoint him of it, by being first to secure it. And as one 

 evil turn, according to the maxim of the multitude, deserves another, 

 our hero takes ample revenge on them, at every opportunity, by robbing 

 them of their game, the hard-earned fruits of their labor. 



The Duck Hawk, it is said, often follows the steps of the shooter, 

 knowing that the ducks will be aroused on the wing, which will afibrd it 

 an almost certain chance of success. 



We have been informed that those ducks which are struck down, have 

 their backs lacerated from the rump to the neck. If this be the fact, 

 iWs a proof that the hawk employs only its talons, which are long and 

 stout, in the operation. One respectable inhabitant of Cape May told 

 us, that he had seen the hawk stl-ike from below. 



This species has been long known in Europe ; and, in the age of Fal- 

 conry, was greatly valued for those qualifications which rendered it 

 estimable to the lovers and followers of that princely amusement. But 

 we have strong objections to its specific appellation. The epithet fere- 

 grine is certainly not applicable to our hawk, which is not migratory, as 

 far as our most diligent inquiries can ascertain ; and as additional evidence 

 of the fact, we ourselves have seen it prowling near the coast of New 

 Jersey, in the month of May, and heard its screams, which resemble 

 somewhat those of the Bald Eagle, in the swamps wherein it is said to 

 breed. We have therefore taken the liberty of changing its English 

 name for one which will at once express a characteristic designation, or 

 which will indicate the species without the labor of investigation.* 



" This species," says Pennant, " breeds on the rocks of Llandidno, in 

 Caernarvonshire, Wales. That promontory has been long famed for 

 producing a generous kind, as appears by a letter extant in Gloddaeth 

 library, from the lord treasurer Burleigh to an ancestor of Sir Roger 

 Mostyn, in which his lordship thanks him for a present of a fine cast of 

 hawks taken on those rocks, which belong to the family. They are also 

 very common in the north of Scotland ; and are sometimes trained for 

 falconry by some few gentlemen who still take delight in this amusement 

 in that part of Great Britain. Their flight is amazing rapid ; one that 

 was reclaimed by a gentleman in the Shire of Angus, a county on the 

 east side of Scotland, eloped from its master with two heavy bells at- 

 tached to each foot, on the 24th of September, 1772, and was killed in 

 the morning of the 26th, near Mostyn, Flintshire, "f. 



The same naturalist, in another place, observes, that " the American 



* " Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity, common to 

 no other of the genus." Am. Orn. i., p. 65. 

 t Btitish Zoology. 



