BLACK HAWK. 455 
hawk, before it has shed its feathers, that is, in its first year, is marked 
on the breast and belly with longitudinal brown spots ; but after it 
has had two moultings, they disappear, and their place is occupied by 
transverse, waving bars, which continue during the rest of its life;” 
he also takes notice, that though the male was much smaller than the 
female, it was fiercer and more vicious. 
Mr. Pennant informs us, that the Goshawk is used by the Emperor 
of China in his sporting excursions, when he is usually attended by 
his grand falconer, and a thousand of inferior rank. Every bird has 
a silver plate fastened to its foot, with the name of the faleoner who 
has charge of it, that, in case it should be lost, it may be restored to 
the proper person; but, if he should not be found, the bird is deliver- 
ed to another officer, called “the guardian of lost birds,” who, to 
make his situation known, erects his standard in a conspicuous place 
among the army of hunters. The same writer informs us, that he ex- 
amined, in the Leverian Museum, a specimen of the Goshawk which 
came from America, and which was superior in size to the European. 
He adds, “ They are the best of all Hawks for falconry.” * 
BLACK HAWK.—FALCO SANCTI JOHANNIS ? — Fic. 208. 
Lath: Ind. Orn. p. 34, No. 74. — Chocolate-colored Faleon, Penn, Arct. Zool. 
No. 94. 
BUTEO'‘SANCTI JOHANNIS ?— Bonaparte. 
Falco (sub-genus Buteo) Sancti Johannis, Bonap. Synop. p. 32. 
Tuis is a remarkably shy and wary bird, found most frequently along 
the marshy shores of our large rivers ; feeds on mice, frogs, and moles ; 
sails much, and sometimes at a great height; has been seen to kill a 
Duck on wing; sits, by the side of the marshes, on a stake, for an hour 
at a time, in an almost perpendicular position, as if dozing ; flies with 
great ease, and occasionally with great swiftness, seldom flapping the 
wings ; seems particularly fond of river shores, swamps, and marshes ; 
is most numerous with us in winter, and but rarely seen in summer; is 
remarkable for the great size of its eye, length of its wings, and short- 
ness of its toes. The breadth of its head is likewise uncommon. 
The Black Hawk is twenty-one inches long, and four feet two inches 
in extent; bill, bluish black ; cere, and sides of the mouth, orange yel- 
tow ; feet, the same; eye, very large; iris, bright hazel ; cartilage over- 
hanging the eye, prominent, of a du.l greenish color; general color 
above, brown black, slightly dashed with dirty white ; nape of the neck, 
pure white under the surface; front, white; whole lower parts, black, 
with slight tinges of brown; and a few circular touches of the same 
on the femorals ; legs, feathered to the toes, and black, touched with 
brownish ; th2 wings reach rather beyond the tip of the tail; the five 
* Arctic Zoology, p. 204. 
