FALCO VELOX.

SHARP-SHINNED HAWK.

[Plate XLV.-Fig. 1, Female.]

THIS is a bold and daring species, hitherto unknown to naturalists. The only Hawk we have which approaches near it in colour is the Pigeon Hawk, figured in plate 15. But there are such striking differences in the present, not only in colour, but in other respects, as to point out decisively its claims to rank as a distinct species. Its long and slender legs and toes; its red fiery eye, feathered to the eye-lids; its triangular grooved nostril, and length of tail, are all different from the Pigeon Hawk, whose legs are short, its eyes dark hazel, surrounded with a broad bare yellow skin, and its nostrils small and circular, centred with a slender point, that rises in it like the pistil of a flower. There is no Hawk mentioned by Pennant, either as inhabiting Europe or America, agreeing with this. I may therefore, with confidence, pronounce it a nondescript; and have chosen a very singular peculiarity which it possesses, for its specific appellation.

This Hawk was shot on the banks of the Schuylkill, near Mr. Bartram's. Its singularity of flight surprised me long before I succeeded in procuring it. It seemed to throw itself from one quarter of the heavens to the other, with prodigious velocity, inclining to the earth; swept suddenly down into a thicket, and instantly re-appeared with a small bird in its talons. This feat I saw it twice perform, so that it was not merely an accidental manœuvre. The rapidity and seeming violence of these zig-zag excursions were really remarkable, and appeared to me to be for the purpose of seizing his prey by sudden surprise, and main force of flight. I kept this Hawk alive for several days, and was hopeful I might be able to cure him; but he died of his wound.

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On the fifteenth of September, two young men whom I had despatched on a shooting expedition, met with this species on one of the ranges of the Alleghany. It was driving around in the same furious headlong manner, and had made a sweep at a red squirrel, which eluded its grasp, and itself became the victim. These are the only individuals of this bird I have been able to procure, and fortunately they were male and female.

The female of this species (represented in the plate) is thirteen inches long, and twenty-five inches in extent; the bill is black towards the point on both mandibles, but light blue at its base; cere a fine pea green; sides of the mouth the same; lores pale whitish blue, beset with hairs; crown and whole upper parts very dark brown, every feather narrowly skirted with a bright rust colour; over the eye a stripe of yellowish white, streaked with deep brown; primaries spotted on their inner vanes with black; secondaries crossed on both vanes with three bars of dusky, below the coverts; inner vanes of both primaries and secondaries brownish white; all the scapulars marked with large round spots of white, not seen unless the plumage be parted with the hand; tail long, nearly even, crossed with four bars of black, and as many of brown ash, and tipt with white; throat and whole lower parts pale yellowish white; the former marked with fine long pointed spots of dark brown, the latter with large oblong spots of reddish brown; femorals thickly marked with spade-formed spots, on a pale rufous ground; legs long and feathered a little below the knee, of a greenish yellow colour, most yellow at the joints; edges of the inside of the shins, below the knee, projecting like the edge of a knife, hard and sharp, as if intended to enable the bird to hold its prey with more security between them; eye, sunk below a projecting cartilage, iris bright yellow.

The male was nearly two inches shorter; the upper parts dark brown; the feathers skirted with pale reddish, the front also streaked with the same; cere greenish yellow; lores bluish; bill black, as in the female; streak over the eye lighter than in the former; chin white; breast the same, streaked with brown;

bars on the tail rather narrower, but in tint and number the same; belly and vent white; feet and shins exactly as in the female; the toes have the same pendulous lobes, which mark those of the female, and of which the representation in the plate will give a correct idea; the wings barred with black, very noticeable on the lower side.

Since writing the above, I have shot another specimen of this Hawk, corresponding in almost every particular with the male last mentioned; and which, on dissection, also proves to be a male. This last had within the grasp of his sharp talons a small lizard, just killed, on which he was about to feed. How he contrived to get possession of it appeared to me matter of surprise, as lightning itself seems scarcely more fleet than this little reptile. So rapid are its motions, that, in passing from one place to another, it vanishes, and actually eludes the eye in running a distance of twelve or fifteen feet. It is frequently seen on fences that are covered with gray moss and lichen, which in colour it very much resembles; it seeks shelter in hollow trees, and also in the ground about their decayed roots. They are most numerous in hilly parts of the country, particularly on the declivities of the Blue mountain, among the crevices of rocks and stones. When they are disposed to run, it is almost impossible to shoot them, as they disappear at the first touch of the trigger. For the satisfaction of the curious, I have introduced a full-sized figure of this lizard, which is known in many parts of the country by the name of the Swift.

SPECIES 10. FALCO PENNSYLVANICUS.”

BROAD-WINGED HAWK.

[Plate LIV.-Fig. 1.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 407.

THIS new species, as well as the rest of the figures in the same plate, is represented of the exact size of life. The Hawk was shot on the sixth of May, in Bartram's woods, near the Schuylkill, and was afterwards presented to Mr. Peale, in whose collection it now remains. It was perched upon the dead limb of a high tree, feeding on something, which was afterwards found to be the meadow mouse, figured in plate 50. On my approach, it uttered a whining kind of whistle, and flew off to another tree, where I followed and shot it. Its great breadth of wing, or width of the secondaries, and also of its head and body, when compared with its length, struck me as peculiarities. It seemed a remarkably strong-built bird, handsomely marked, and was altogether unknown to me. Mr. Bartram, who examined it very attentively, declared he had never before seen such a Hawk. On the afternoon of the next day I observed another, probably its mate or companion, and certainly one of the same species, sailing about over the same. woods. Its motions were in wide circles, with unmoving wings, the exterior outline of which seemed a complete semicircle. I was extremely anxious to procure this also if possible;

* The name Pennsylvanicus, was given by Wilson to this bird, through inadvertence, he having already given that name to the Slate-coloured Hawk, which is a distinct species from the present, as Wilson was well aware. Mr. Ord, in the reprint of this work called it F. latisimus. But should the Slate-coloured Hawk (F. Pennsylvanicus,) and the Sharp-shinned Hawk (F. velox,) prove to be the same species, then the name Pennsylvanicus must be retained for this species, that of velor being adopted for the former.

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but it was attacked and driven away by a King-bird before I could effect my purpose, and I have never since been fortunate enough to meet with another. On dissecting the one which I had shot, it proved to be a male.

In size this Hawk agrees, nearly, with the Buzzardet, (Falco albidus) of Turton, described also by Pennant; (Arct. Zool. N. 109.) but either the descriptions of these authors are very inaccurate, the change of colour which that bird undergoes very great, or the present is altogether a different species. Until, however, some other specimens of this Hawk come under my observation, I can only add to the figure here given, and which is a good likeness of the original, the following particulars of its size and plumage.

Length fourteen inches, extent thirty-three inches; bill black, blue near the base, slightly toothed; cere and corners of the mouth yellow; irides bright amber; frontlet and lores white; from the mouth backwards runs a streak of blackish brown; upper parts dark brown, the plumage tipt, and the head streaked, with whitish; almost all the feathers above are spotted or barred with white; but this is not seen unless they be separated by the hand; head large, broad and flat; cere very broad, the nostril also large; tail short, the exterior and interior feathers somewhat the shortest, the others rather longer, of a full black, and crossed with two bars of white, tipt also slightly with whitish; tail-coverts spotted with white; wings dusky brown, indistinctly barred with black; greater part of the inner vanes snowy; lesser coverts, and upper part of the back, tipt and streaked with bright ferruginous; the bars of black are very distinct on the lower side of the wing; lining of the wing brownish white, beautifully marked with small arrow-heads of brown; chin white, surrounded by streaks of black; breast and sides elegantly spotted with large arrow-heads of brown, centred with pale brown; belly and vent, like the breast, white, but more thinly marked with pointed spots of brown; femorals brownish white, thickly marked with small touches of brown and white; vent white; legs very stout; feet coarsely scaled,