GREAT-FOOTED HAWK.
Like most other Hawks, this is a solitary bird, excepting during the
breeding season, at the beginning of which it is seen in pairs. Their season
of breeding is so very early, that it might be said to be in winter. I
have seen the male caressing the female as early as the first days of December.
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, winch 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 Kentucky. 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.
GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 89
I have known them also 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.
FALCO PEREGRIN US, Gmel. Syst. vol. i. p. 272—Lath. Ind. Oniith. vol. i. p. 3 3—
Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 27.
PEREGRINE FALCON, Lath. Synopsis, vol. i. p. 73, and Suppl. p. 18.
GREAT-FOOTED HAWK, Wilson, Americ. Oniith. vol. ix. p. 120, PI. 70".
Adult Male. Plate XVI. Fig. 1.
Rill shortish, as broad as deep, the sides convex, the dorsal outline
convex from the base; upper mandible cerate, the edges blunt, slightly
inflected, with a process towards the curvature on either side with a hollow,
the tip trigonal, descending obliquely, acute; lower mandible involute
at the edges, truncate at the end, with a notch near it, corresponding
to the process above. Nostrils round, lateral, with a soft papilla in the
centre, connected with the upper edge. Head rather large and round
Neck shortish. Body ovate, anteriorly broad. Legs robust, short
roundish; tarsi covered all round with imbricated scales, the anterior
largest, broad, and subhexagonal, the posterior small and rounded.
Toes robust, covered above with broad scutella, scabrous and tubercular
below; middle and outer toes connected by a membrane; claws roundish,
strong and curved, acute, marginate beneath.
Plumage ordinary, compact, imbricated. Feathers of the back
rounded, of the neck and breast anteriorly broad and rounded ; of the
sides long, all acuminate; of the thighs long and rounded. Space between
the bill and eye covered only with bristly feathers. Feathers of
the forehead with bristly points. Wings long; primary quills mode,
ratelv broad, attenuated ; first quill notched near the end ; secondaries