14 



SLATE-COLORED HAWK, 



those parts that are subject to little or no alteration in the full- 

 grown bird, viz. the particular conformation of the legs, nostril, 

 tail, and the relative length of the latter to that of the wings, also 

 the peculiar character of the countenance, he will frequently be de- 

 ceived. By comparing these, the same species may often be de- 

 tected under a very different garb. Were all these changes accu- 

 rately known, there is no doubt but the number of species of this 

 tribe, at present enumerated, would be greatly diminished; the 

 same bird having been described by certain writers three, four, 

 and even five different times as so many distinct species. Test- 

 ing, however, the present Hawk by the rules above-mentioned, I 

 have no hesitation in considering it as a species different from any 

 hitherto described; and I have classed it accordingly. 



The Slate-colored Hawk is eleven inches long, and twenty- 

 one inches in extent; bill blue black; cere and sides of the mouth 

 dull green; eye-lid yellow; eye deep sunk under the projecting 

 eyebrow, and of a fiery orange color; upper parts of a fine slate; 

 primaries brown black, and, as well as the secondaries, barred with 

 dusky; scapulars spotted with white and brown, which is not seen 

 unless the plumage be separated by the hand; all the feathers 

 above are shafted with black; tail very slightly forked, of an ash 

 color, faintly tinged with brown, crossed with four broad bands of 

 black, and tipt with white; tail three inches longer than the wings ; 

 over the eye extends a streak of dull white ; chin white mixed with 

 fine black hairs ; breast and belly beautifully variegated with fer- 

 ruginous and transverse spots of white; femorals the same; vent 

 pure white; legs long, very slender, and of a rich orange yellow; 

 claws black, large and remarkably sharp ; lining of the w ing thick- 

 ly marked with heart-shaped spots of black. This bird on dissec- 

 tion was found to be a male. In the month of February I shot 

 another individual of this species, near Hampton in Virginia, which 

 agreed almost exactly with the present. ; 



