THE GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
87 
This species visits Louisiana during the winter months only ; for although 
I have observed it mating then, it generally disappears a few days after, and 
in a fortnight later none can be seen. It is scarce in the Middle States, 
where, as well as in the Southern Districts, it lives along water-courses, and 
in the neighbourhood of the shores of the sea and inland lakes. I should 
think that they breed in the United States, having shot a pair in the month 
of August near the Falls of Niagara. It is extremely tenacious of life, and 
if not wounded in the wings, though mortally so in the body, it flies to the 
last gasp, and does not fall until life is extinct. I never saw one of them 
attack a quadruped, although I have frequently seen them perched within 
sight of squirrels, which I thought they might easily have secured, had they 
been so inclined. 
Once when nearing the coast of England, being then about a hundred 
and fifty miles distant from it, in the month of July, I obtained a pair of 
these birds, which had come on board our vessel, and had been shot there. 
I examined them with care, and found no difference between them and those 
which I had shot in America. They are at present scarce in England, where 
I have seen only a few. In London, some-individuals of the species resort 
to the cupola of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the towers of Westminster Abbey, 
to roost, and probably to breed. I have seen them depart from these places 
at day dawn, and return in the evening. 
The achievements of this species are well known in Europe, where it is 
even at the present day trained for the chase. Whilst on a visit at Dalmahoy, 
the seat of the Earl of Morton, near Edinburgh, I had the pleasure of seeing 
a pair of these birds hooded, and with small brass bells on their legs, in 
excellent training. They were the property of that nobleman. 
These birds sometimes roost in the hollows of trees. I saw one resorting 
for weeks every night to a hole in a dead sycamore, near Louisville, in Ken- 
tucky. It generally came to the place a little before sunset, alighted on the 
dead branches, and in a short time after flew into the hollow, where it spent 
the night, and from whence I saw it issuing at dawn. I have known them 
also to retire for the same purpose to the crevices of high cliffs, on the banks of 
Green river in the same State. One winter, when I had occasion to cross 
the Homochitta river, in the State of Mississippi, I observed these Hawks 
in greater numbers than I had ever before seen. 
Many persons believe that this Hawk, and some others, never drink any 
other fluid than the blood of their victims ; but this is an error. I have seen 
them alight on sand-bars, walk to the edge of them, immerse their bills nearly 
up to the eyes in the water, and drink in a continued manner, as Pigeons 
are known to do. 
