Bill yellow. Iris bright yellow. Claws brownish-black. The general colour of the upper parts is greyish-brown, variegated with greyish-white in irregular undulated markings; the feathers on the upper part of the head with two transverse white spots on each web; the smaller wing-coverts of a darker brown, and less mottled than the back; the outer scapulars with more white on their outer webs; the primary quills blackish-brown toward the end, marked in the rest of their extent with few broad light-grey oblique bands, which are dotted and undulated with darker. Tail-feathers similarly barred, darker towards the end, the middle ones more intricately marked. The feathers of the ruff are white towards the end, dark-brown in the centre. The disks are on their inner side grey, with black tips; in the rest of their extent greyish-white, with six bars of blackish-brown very regularly disposed in a concentric manner; feathers on the chin or upper part of throat greyish-white. All the under parts are greyish-brown, variegated with greyish and yellowish white; the feet barred with the same.
Length to end of tail 30 1/2 inches, to end of wings 27 1/4, to end of claws 22; extent of wings 48 1/2; wing from flexure 19 1/4; tail 12 3/4; bill along the ridge 1, along the edge of lower mandible 1 3/4; breadth of gape 1 1/2; tarsus 2 1/2; hind toe 7/12, its claw 7/8; middle toe 1, its claw 1 5/12.
BLACK-SHOULDERED HAWK.
Falco dispar, Temm.
PLATE CCCLII. Male and Female.
I have traced the migration of this beautiful Hawk from the Texas as far east as the mouth of the Santee River in South Carolina. Charles Bonaparte first introduced it into our Fauna, on the authority of a specimen procured in East Florida, by Titian Peale, Esq. of Philadelphia, who it seems had some difficulty in obtaining it. On the 8th of February 1834 I received one of these birds alive from Dr Ravenel of Charleston, who had kept it in his yard for eight days previously, without being able to induce it to take any food. The beauty of its large eyes struck me at once, and I immediately made a drawing of the bird, which was the first I had ever seen alive. It proved to be a male, and was in beautiful plumage. Dr Ravenel told me that it walked about his yard with tolerable ease, although one of its wings had been injured. On the 23d of the same month I received another fine specimen, a female, from Francis Lee, Esq., who had procured it on his plantation, forty miles west of Charleston, and with it the following note. “When first observed, it was perched on a tree in an erect posture. I saw at once that it was one of the birds which you had desired me to procure for you, and went to the house for my gun. On returning I saw the Hawk very high in the air, sailing beautifully over a large wet meadow, where many Common Snipes were feeding. It would now and then poise itself for a while, in the manner of our Little Sparrow Hawk, and suddenly closing its wings plunge towards its prey with great velocity, making a rumbling noise as it passed through the air. Now and then, when about half-way, it suddenly checked its descent, recommenced hovering, and at last marking its prey, rushed upon it and secured it. Its cries, on being wounded, so much resembled those of the Mississippi Kite, that I thought, as I was going to pick it up, that I had only got one of that species. It was so shy that I was obliged to get on horseback before I could approach it within gun shot.”
Mr H. Ward, who accompanied me on my expedition to the Floridas found this species breeding on the plantation of Alexander Mayzck, Esq., on the Santee River, early in the month of March, and shot three, two of which, a male and a female, are now in my possession. Their nests were placed on low trees near the margins of the river, and resembled those of the American Crow, but had none of the substantial lining of that bird’s nest. Mr Ward states, that at this time they were seen flying over the cane brakes in pursuit of large insects, somewhat in the manner of the Mississippi Kite, and that they were very shy.
My friend John Bachman has seen this species fly in groups, at a very great height, in the beginning of March, and thinks that it is only of late years that they have located themselves in South Carolina, where, however, five of them have been procured in one year.
The Black-shouldered Hawk appears to give a decided preference to low lands, not distant from the shores of the Atlantic. On our way toward the Texas, several of these birds were seen over the large marshes, flying at a small elevation, and coursing in search of prey, much in the manner of the Hen-harrier or Marsh Hawk, but all evidently bent on proceeding to the eastward. Whether this species winters there or not, I am unable to say, but that some remain all the year in Florida, and even in South Carolina, I am quite confident.
The difference between the food of this species and that of the Mississippi Kite is surprising to me. I have never seen the latter seize any bird, whereas the Black-shouldered Hawk certainly does so, as in the stomachs of two individuals which I examined were remains of birds as well as of coleopterous insects. These two birds agree nearly with the description of the one procured by Mr Titian Peale, excepting in the length of the wings, which in them and in several others that have come under my notice, have their tips fully an inch shorter than the end of the tail. A breeding female differed from the rest in having the eyes dull yellowish-red; the tail-feathers had all been ash-grey, all the primaries were edged with white, and many of the secondaries were still of a light brownish-grey; the black spots under the wings were smaller than usual; the abdomen was also tinged with brownish-grey. I am therefore of opinion, that these birds undergo as many changes of plumage as the Mississippi Kite.
Black-winged Hawk, Falco melanopterus, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Orn. vol. ii. pl. 11. fig. 1. Female.