GREAT-FOOTED HAWK 



123 



signation, or which will indicate the species without the labor of 

 investigation.^ 



This species/"* says Pennant, "breeds on the rocks of Llan- 

 didno, in Caernarvonshire, Wales.t That promontory has been 

 long famed for producing a generous kind, as appears by a letter 

 extant in Gloddaeth library, from the lord treasurer 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 to each foot, on the twenty-fourth of Septem- 

 ber, 1772, and was killed in the morning of the twenty-sixth, near 

 Mostyn, riintshire.''^ 



The same naturalist in another place observes, that " the 

 American species is larger than the European,\ They are subject 

 to vary. The Black Falcon, and the Spotted Falcon of Edwards 

 are of this kind; each preserves a specific mark, in the black 

 stroke which drops from beneath the eyes, down towards the neck. 



" Inhabits different parts of North America, from Hudson^s 

 Bay as low as Carolina. In Asia, is found on the highest parts of 

 the Uralian and Siberian chain. Wanders in summer to the verv 

 Arctic circle. Is common in Kamtschatka.^^^* 



* " Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity, common to no other of the 

 genus." Am. Orn. i, p. 65. 



j We suspect that Pennant is mistaken : its name denotes that it is not indigenous in Great Bri- 

 tain, Bewick says, " The Peregrine or Passenger Falcon, is rarely met with in Britain, and conse- 

 quently is but little known with us." British Birds, part i, p. 71. 



^ British Zoology. 



§ If we were to adopt the mode of philosophizing of the sapient Count de Buifon, we should infer 

 that the European species is a variety of oitr more generoiis race, degenerated by the influence of food 

 and climate I ' Arctic Zoology. 



