154 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
respectable inhabitant of Cape May told us that he has seen 
the hawk strike from below. 
This species has been long known in Europe, and in the 
age of falconry 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 peregrine is certainly not 
applicable to our hawk, which is not migratory, as far as our 
most diligent inquiries can ascertain ; and, as additional evi- 
dence 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 there- 
fore 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 labour of inves- 
tigation.* 
“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 Trea- 
surer 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 amazingly 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 attached 
* “Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity 
common to no other of the genus.” Am. Orn., i. p. 65. 
+ We suspect that Pennant is mistaken ; its name denotes that it is 
not indigenous in Great Britain. Bewick says, “The peregrine or 
passenger falcon is rarely met with in Britain, and consequently is but 
little known with us.”—British Birds, part i. 
