Species XIV. FALCO NIGER* 
BLACK HAWK. 
[Plate LIII. Fig. 1.] 
This, and the other two figures in the same plate, are reduced from 
the large drawings, which were taken of the exact size of nature, to 
one-half their dimensions. I regret the necessity which obliges me to 
contract the figures of these birds, by wliich much of the grandeur of 
the originals is lost ; particular attention, however, has been paid, in 
the reduction, to the accurate representation of all their parts. 
This is a remarkably shy and wary bird, found most frequently along 
the marshy shores of our large rivers ; feeds on mice, frogs and moles ; 
sails much, and sometimes at a great height ; has been seen to kill a 
duck on wing ; sits by the side of the marshes, on a stake, for an hour 
at a time, in an almost perpendicular position, as if dozing ; flies with 
great ease, and occasionally with great swiftness, seldom flapping the 
wings ; seems particularly fond of river shores, swamps and marshes ; 
is most numerous with us in winter, and but rarely seen in summer ; is 
remarkable for the great size of its eye, length of its wings, and short- 
ness of its toes. The breadth of its head is likewise uncommon. 
The Black Hawk is twenty-one inches long, and four feet two inches 
in extent ; bill bluish black ; cere and sides of the mouth orange yel- 
low ; feet the same ; eye very large, iris bright hazel ; cartilage over- 
hanging the eye, prominent, of a dull greenish color ; general color 
above, brown black, slightly dashed with dirty white ; nape of the neck 
jDure white under the surface; front Avhite ; whole lower parts black, 
with slio;ht tincres of brown, and a few circular touches of the same on 
the femorals ; legs feathered to the toes, and black, touched with 
brownish ; the wings reach rather beyond the tip of the tail ; the five 
first primaries are white on their inner vanes ; tail rounded at the end, 
deep black, crossed with five narrow bands of pure white, and broadly 
tipped with dull white ; vent black, spotted with white ; inside vanes 
of the primaries snowy ; claws black, strong and sharp ; toes remark- 
ably short. 
I strongly suspect this bird to be of the very same species with the 
next, though both were found to be males. Although diff"ering greatly 
*As Wilson suspected, this is the F. Sancti Johannis of Latham. Ind. Orn. p. 
34, No. 74.— Gmel. Si/si. i., p. 273, No. 92. F. Spadiceus? Id. No. 91. 
(74) 
