HARLAN’S BUZZ/\RD. 
39 
perched on the top of a high belted tree in an erect and commanding 
attitude. It looked so like the Black Hawk ( Falco niger ) of Wilson, that 
I apprehended what I had heard respecting it might prove incorrect. I ap- 
proached it, however, when, as if it suspected my evil intentions, it flew 
off, but after at first sailing as if with the view of escaping from me, passed 
over my head, when I shot at it, and brought it winged to the ground. No 
sooner had I inspected its eye, its bill, and particularly its naked legs, than 
I felt assured that it was, as has been represented by those persons who 
had spoken to me of its exploits, a new species. I drew it whilst alive ; 
but my intentions of preserving it and carrying it to England as a present 
to the Zoological Society were frustrated by its refusing food. It died in 
a few days, when I preserved its skin, which, along with those of other 
rare birds, I have since given to the British Museum, through my friend 
J. G. Children, Esq. of that institution. 
A few days afterwards I saw the male bird perched on the same tree, but 
was unable to approach him so long as I had a gun, although he frequently 
allowed me and my wife to pass close to the foot of the tree when we were 
on horseback and unarmed. I followed it in vain for nearly a fortnight, 
from one field to another, and from tree to tree, until our physician, 
Dr. John B. Hereford, knowing my great desire to obtain it, shot it in 
the wing with a rifle ball, and sent it alive to me. It was still wilder than 
the female, erected the whole of the feathers of its head, opened its bill, 
and was ever ready to strike with its talons at any object brought near it. 
I made my drawing of the male also while still alive. 
This species, although considerably smaller than the Red-tailed Hawk, 
to which it is allied, is superior to it in* flight and daring. Its flight 
is rapid, greatly protracted, and so powerful as to enable it to seize its 
prey with apparent ease, or effect its escape from its stronger antagonist, 
the Red-tail, which pursues it on all occasions. 
The Black Warrior has been seen to pounce on a fowl, kill it almost in- 
stantly, and afterwards drag it along the ground for several hundred 
yards, when it would conceal it, and return to feed upon it in security. It 
was not observed to fall on Hares or Squirrels, but at all times evinced a 
marked preference for common Poultry, Partridges, and the smaller species 
of Wild Duck. 
I was told that the young birds appeared to be of a leaden-gray colour 
at a distance, but at the approach of winter became as dark as the parents. 
None of them were to be seen at the time when I procured the latter. Of 
its nesfor eggs nothing is yet known. My friends Messrs. Johnson and 
Carpenter frequently spoke of this Hawk to me immediately after my re* 
turn to Louisiana from Europe, which took place in November 1829. 
