SPECIES 14 . FALCO NIGER.* 
BLACK HAWK. 
[Plate LIII. — Fig. 1.] 
Pkale’s Museum, No. 404. 
This, and the other two figures in the same plate, are re- 
duced from the large drawings, which were taken of the exact 
size of nature, to one half their dimensions. I regret the ne- 
cessity which obliges me to contract the figures of these birds, 
by which much of the grandeur of the originals is lost; particu- 
lar 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 fre- 
quently 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 shortness 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 yellow; feet the same; eye very large, iris bright 
hazel; cartilage overhanging the eye, prominent, of a dull 
greenish colour; general colour above, brown black, slightly 
* As Wilson suspected, tliis is the F. Sancti Johannis of Latham. Ind. Orn. 
p. 34, J^o 74. — Gmei. Stjsl. i,p. 273, J^o. 92. F. Spadiceus? Id. No. 91. 
