2 1 2 SHARP-SHINNED HA WK. 



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 hird in its 

 talons. This feat I saw it twice perform, so that it was not 

 merely an accidental manoeuvre. The rapidity and seeming 

 violence of these zigzag excursions were really remarkable, 

 and appeared to me to be for the purpose of seizing his prey 

 by sudden surprise 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 of the 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 the plate) 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 colour ; 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 round spots of white, not 

 seen unless the plumage be parted with the hand ; tail long, 

 nearly even, crossed with four bars of black and as many of 

 brown ash, and tipt with white; throat and whole lower parts, 

 pale yellowish white ; the former marked with fine long 

 pointed spots of dark brown, the latter with large oblong spots 

 of reddish brown ; femorals, thickly marked with spade-formed 

 spots on a pale rufous ground ; legs, long, and feathered a little 

 below the knee, of a greenish yellow colour, most yellow at the 



