SLATE COLOUHED HAWK. 
71 
Aow for the first time introduced to the notice of 
’'”® public. It frequents tlie more settled parts of the 
in winter ; is at all times a scarce 
’*pecips; flics wide, in a very irrcfcnlar manner, and 
?"iftly ; preys on lizards, mice, and small birds, and 
active and daring' little hunter. . . . 
j The great ditficuity of accurately discriminating 
*etwe.en (lirtereut species of the hawk tribe, on account 
the various appearances they assume at different 
|*.'^'‘iods of their long lives, at first excited a suspicion 
this mi(.bt be one of those with which I was 
acquriinted, in a different dress, namely the 
just described ; for such arc the 
Changes of colour to which many individuals of this 
?®“Us are subject, that, unless the naturalist has reemu-se 
those parts that are subject to little or no alteration 
‘V'*® full irrown bird, viz. the particular conformation 
the leo-s, nostril, tail, and the relative length ot the 
,f,?ter to that of the n ings, also the peculiar character 
the countenance, he will frequently be deceived. By 
'Aparin-' these, the same species may often be detected 
»«CU1 
I 111' ' LllCdt') 11 1C O w* - - 
- a very dift’ereiit garb. Were alt these changes 
irately known, there is no doubt but the number ot 
buries of this tribe, at present enumerated, n onhl be 
^®®tly flii„;„ished, the same bird h.aving been described 
tertaiu writers’ three, four, and even live different 
tij"®** as so many distinct species. Testing, however. 
proseiit hawk by the rules above-mentionea. lli«^ve 
hesitation in considering it as a species different 
^*>1 any hitherto described; and I have classed if 
'‘'cordiuf.iy ■ 
. The sfaWioloured hawk is eleven inches long, and 
, ';''nty-one inches in extent ; hill, hlue black ; cere and 
sf? of the mouth, dull green ; eyelid, yellow; eye, deep 
tink Under the projecting eyebrow, and ot a heiy 
eolour; upper parts of a fine slate ; pnn.anes 
.ot' u hlaek and as n oil as the sceondarics, barred 
^■'fh dusky •’ scapulars, spotted with n hite and brown, 
^oeh is hot seen unless the plumage he separated by 
hand; all the feathers above are shafted with 
