404 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 
4 
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK.—FALCO VELOX. -~ Fic. 185. 
ACCIPITER PENNSYLVANICUS. — Swainson.— YOUNG FEMALE. 
Autour a bec sineuse, Temm. Pl. Col. 67. 
__ Tus is a bold and daring species, hitherto unknown to naturalists. 
The only Hawk we have which approaches near it in color is the 
Pigeon Hawk, already figured in this work. But there are such strik- 
ing differences in the present, not only in color, but in other respects, 
as to point out decisively its claims to rank as a distinct species. Its 
long and slender legs and toes—its red fiery eye, feathered to the 
eyelids — its triangular grooved nostril, and length of tail,—are all 
different from the Pigeon Hawk, whose legs ate short, its eyes dark 
hazel, surrounded with a broad bare yellow skin, and its nostrils small 
and circular, centered with a slender point that rises in it like the pis- 
til of a flower. There is no Hawk mentioned by Mr. Pennant, either 
as inhabiting Europe or America, agreeing with this. I may, there- 
fore, with confidence, pronounce it a nondescript; and have chosen a 
very singular peculiarity which it possesses for its specific appella- 
tion. 
This Hawk was shot on the banks of the Schuylkill, near Mr. Bar- 
tram’s. Its singularity of flight surprised me long before I succeeded 
in procuring it. It seemed to’ throw itself from one quarter of the 
heavens to the other, with prodigious velocity, inclining to the earth, 
swept suddenly down into a thicket, and instantly reappeared with a 
small bird in its talons. This feat I saw it twice perform, so that it 
was not merely an accidental manceuvre. The rapidity and seeming 
violence of these zigzag excursions were really remarkable, and ap- 
peared to me to be for the purpose of seizing his prey by sudden sur- 
prise and main force of flight. I kept this Hawk alive for several 
days, and was hopeful I might be able to cure him; but he died of 
his wound. 
On the 15th of September, two young men whom I had despatched 
on a shooting expedition, met with this species on one of the ranges 
ofthe Alleghany. It was driving around in the same furious headlong 
manner, and had made a sweep at a red squirrel, which eluded its grasp, 
and itself became the victim. These are the only individuals of this 
bird I have been able to procure, and fortunately they were male and 
female. ‘ 
The female of this species (represented in Fig. 185) is thirteen 
inches long, and twenty-five inches in extent; the bill is black towards 
the point on both mandibles, but light blue at its base ; cere, a fine pea 
green; sides of the mouth, the same; lores, pale whitish blue, beset 
with hairs; crown and whole upper parts, very dark brown, every 
feather narrowly skirted with a bright rust color; over the eye a stripe 
of yellowish white, streaked with deep brown; primaries, spotted on 
their inner vanes with black ; secondaries, crossed on both vanes with 
three bars of dusky, below the coverts ; inner vanes of both primaries 
and secondaries, brownish white ; all the scapulars marked with large 
