GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
255 
princely amusement. But we have strong objections to its 
specific appellation. The epithet peregrine^ is certainly not 
applicable to our hawk, which is not migratory, as far as our 
most diligent enquiries can ascertain ; and, as additional evi- 
dence of the fact, we ourselves have seen it prowling near the 
coast of New Jersey, in the month of May, and heard its 
screams, which resemble somewhat those of the bald eagle, in 
the swamps wherein it is said to breed. We have therefore 
taken the liberty of changing its English name for one which 
will at once express a characteristic designation, or which will 
indicate the species without the labour of investigation.* * * § 
“ This species,” says Pennant, “ breeds on the rocks' of 
Llandidno, in Caernarvonshire, Wales.f That promontory has 
been long famed for producing a generous kind, as appears by 
a letter, extant in Gloddaeth Library, from the Lord-Treasu- 
rer Burleigh, to an ancestor of Sir Roger Mostyn, in which 
his lordship thanks him for a present of a fine cast of hawks, 
taken on those rocks, which belong to the family. They are 
also very common in the north of Scotland, and are sometimes 
trained for falconry, by some few gentlemen who still take 
delight in this amusement, in that part of Great Britain. Their 
flight is amazingly rapid ; one, that was reclaimed by a gentle- 
man in the shire of Angus, a county on the east side of Scot- 
land, eloped from its master with two heavy bells attached to 
each foot, on the 24th September, 1772, and was killed in the 
morning of the 26th, near Mostyn, Flintshire.”:|: 
The same naturalist in another place observes, that “ ihe 
American species is larger than the European,^ They are sub« 
* “ Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity, common to 
no other of the genus.” — Am. Orn. i. p. 65. 
*j- We suspect that Pennant is mistaken; its name denotes that it is not in- 
digenous in Great Britain. Bewick says, “ The peregrine, or passenger falcon, 
is rarely met with in Britain, and consequently is hut little known with us.” — 
British BirdSf part i. 
^ British Zoology. 
§ If we were to adopt the mode of philosophizing of the sapient Count de Buf- 
