WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 
19 
thus deprive future observers, who may risk their 
fortunes, or even their lives, in pursuit of imperfectly 
known animals, of their best reward, they cannot fail 
to incur the merited reprobation of ail honourable and 
fair-dealing’ naturalists. 
Though this bird rang-es so widely over the American 
continent, it is every where a rare species, and in the 
United States appears to be confined to the southern 
extremity. This specimen was shot in December, in 
the neighbourhood of St Augustine, East Florida, at 
the residence of my near relation, Colonel Achilles 
Murat, whose kind hospitality afforded to Mr Titian 
Peale every facility for the prosecution of his scientific 
researches. It was observed by Mr Peale, about the 
dawn of day, sitting on the dead branch of an old live 
oak, attentively watching the borders of an adjacent 
salt marsh, which abounded with Arvicola hispidus , 
and the different species of sparrow, which make their 
residence in the southern parts of the Union. It was 
very shy, and, on his approach, it flew in easy circles 
at a moderate elevation; and such was its vigilance, 
that the greater part of a day was spent in attempting 
to get within gunshot. At length the cover of inter- 
posing bushes enabled him to effect his purpose. It 
was a beautiful female, in perfect adult plumage. This 
sex, in the perfect state, is now for the first time 
described, Temminck’s plate representing the young- 
female only ; and even the figures of the African 
analogue, in Le Yaillant’s work, exhibit only the male 
in the young and adult states. As usual in the tribe 
of predaceous birds, the female is much larger than the 
male, and is, therefore, entitled to precedence. 
Though this species is so rare, its near relative, the 
black-winged hawk, appears, on the contrary, to be 
very numerous. In Africa, where it was first discovered, 
and which is probably its native country, it is rather a 
common species, and has a very extensive range. Le 
Vaillant frequently observed it on the eastern coast of that 
little known continent, from Duyven-Hoek to Caffraria, 
where, however, it is less common. The same traveller 
