GREAT- FOOT ED HAWK. 
25 
When the sportsmen perceive the hawk knock down a duck, they 
frequently disappoint him of it, by being first to secure it. And as one 
evil turn, according to the maxim of the multitude, deserves another, 
our hero takes ample revenge on them, at every opportunity, by robbing 
them of their game, the hard-earned fruits of their labor. 
The Duck Hawk, it is said, often follows the steps of the shooter, 
knowing that the ducks will be aroused on the wing, which will afford it 
an almost certain chance of success. 
We have been informed that those ducks which are struck down, have 
their backs lacerated from the rump to the neck. If this be the fact, 
it is a proof that the hawk employs only its talons, which are long and 
stout, in the operation. One respectable inhabitant of Cape May told 
us, that he had seen the hawk strike from beloAV. 
This species has been long known in Europe ; and, in the age of Fal- 
conry, 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 sj^ecific appellation. The epithet pere- 
grine is certainly not applicable to our hawk, Avhich is not migratory, as 
far as our most diligent inquiries can ascertain ; and as additional evidence 
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 therefore 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 labor of investigation.* 
" 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 treasurer Burleigh to an ancestor of Sir Roger 
Mostyn, in which his lordship thanks him for a pjresent 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 amazing 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 at- 
tached to each foot, on the 24th of September, 1772, and was killed in 
the morning of the 26th, near Mostyn, Flintshire, "f 
The same naturalist, in another place, observes, that " the American 
* '' Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity, common to 
no other of the genus." Am. Orn. i., p. 65. 
I British Zoology. 
