SLATE-COLORED HAWK. 407 
that shrub; from which circumstance, they are usually called, in that 
quarter, Myrtle Birds. Their breeding place I suspect to be in our 
northern districts, among the swamps and evergreens so abundant there, 
having myself shot. them in the Great Pine Swamp about the middle 
of May. 
They range along our whole Atlantic coast in winter, seeming par- 
ticularly fond of the red cedar and the myrtle; and I have found them 
numerous, in October, on the low islands along the coast of New 
Jersey, in the same pursuit. They also dart after flies, wherever they 
can see them, generally skipping about with the wings loose. 
Length, five inches and a quarter ; extent, eight inches; upper parts 
and sides of the neck, a dark mouse brown, obscurely streaked on the 
back with dusky black ; lower parts, pale dull yellowish white ; breast, 
marked with faint streaks. of brown ; chin and vent, white ; rump, vivid 
yellow ; at each side of the breast, and also on the crown, a spot of 
fainter yellow ; this last not observable, without separating the plumage ; 
bill, legs, and wings, black ; lesser coverts, tipt with brownish white ; 
tail-coverts, slate ; the three exterior tail-feathers marked on their inner 
vanes with white ; a touch of the same on the upper and lower eyelid. 
Male and female at this season nearly alike. They begin to change 
about the middle of February ; and, in four or five weeks, are in their 
slate-colored dress, as represented in the figure referred to. 
SLATE-COLORED HAWK.—FALCO PENNSYLVANICUS.— 
Fig. 188. 
ACCIPITER PENNSYLVANICUS.—Swainson.* 
Falco velox, Bonap. Synop. p. 29. — Autour a bec sineuse, Temm. Pl. Col. 67. 
ag ami ag Pennsylvanicus, North. Zool. ii. p. 44. 
Turs elegant and spirited little Hawk is a native of Pennsylvania, 
and of the Atlantic states generally ; and is now for the first time in- 
troduced to the notice of the public. It frequents the more settled 
parts of the country, chiefly in winter; is at all times a scarce species ; 
flies wide, very irregular, and swiftly ; preys on lizards, mice, and small 
birds, and is an active and daring little hunter. Itis drawn of full size, 
- from a very beautiful specimen shot in the neighborhood of Philadel- 
phia. The bird within his grasp is the T'unagra rubra, or Black-winged 
* It is now satisfactorily ascertained that this, and the Falco velox of Fig. 185 are 
the same species, the latter representing the plumage of the young female. The 
changes and differences are the same with those of the common European Sparrow 
Hawk, Accipiter nisus. 
This bird most probably extends to the intertropical parts of South America. Its 
occurrence far to the northward is not so common. It was not met with by Dr. 
Richardson ; and the authority of its existence in the Fur Countries rests on a speci- 
men in the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum, killed at Moose Factory. It very 
nearly resembles two small species from Mexico, the at Jimauloes of Mr.Vigors, 
and one newly characterized by Mr. Swairson as A. Mexicanus.— ED. 
