chin white; femorals and vent pale brownish white, the former marked with a few minute heart-shaped spots of brown; legs yellow, feathered half way below the knees.

This was a male. Another specimen shot within a few days after, agreed in almost every particular of its colour and markings with the present; and on dissection was found to be a female.

FALCO LEVERIANUS?*

AMERICAN BUZZARD.

[Plate LII.-Fig. 2.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 400.

Ir is with some doubt and hesitation that I introduce the present as a distinct species from the preceding. In their size and general aspect they resemble each other considerably; yet I have found both males and females among each; and in the present species I have sometimes found the ground colour of the tail strongly tinged with ferruginous, and the bars of dusky but slight; while in the preceding, the tail is sometimes wholly red brown, the single bar of black near the tip excepted; in other specimens evident remains of numerous other bars are visible. In the meantime both are figured, and future observations may throw more light on the matter.

This bird is more numerous than the last; but frequents the same situations in winter. One, which was shot in the wing, lived with me several weeks; but refused to eat. It amused itself by frequently hopping from one end of the room to the other; and sitting for hours at the window, looking down on the passengers below. At first, when approached by any person, he generally put himself in the position in which he is represented; but after some time he became quite familiar, permitting himself to be handled, and shutting his eyes as if quite passive. Though he lived so long without food, he was found on dissection to be exceedingly fat, his stomach being enveloped in a mass of solid fat of nearly an inch in thickness.

* Falco borealis. Wilson's suspicions of this and the preceding being the same bird, have been confirmed by Prince Musignano. This is the young, the preceding the adult bird.

The American Buzzard, or White-breasted Hawk, is twentytwo inches long, and four feet in extent; cere pale green; bill pale blue, black at the point; eye bright straw colour; eyebrow projecting greatly; head broad, flat and large; upper part of the head, sides of the neck and back, brown, streaked and seamed with white, and some pale rust; scapulars and wing-coverts spotted with white; wing quills much resembling the preceding species; tail-coverts white, handsomely barred with brown; tail slightly rounded, of a pale brown colour, varying in some to a sorrel, crossed by nine or ten bars of black, and tipt for half an inch with white; wings brown, barred with dusky; inner vanes nearly all white; chin, throat and breast, pure white, with the exception of some slight touches of brown that enclose the chin; femorals yellowish white, thinly marked with minute touches. of rust; legs bright yellow, feathered half way down; belly broadly spotted with black or very deep brown; the tips of the wings reach to the middle of the tail.

My reason for inclining to consider this a distinct species from the last, is that of having uniformly found the present two or three inches larger than the former, though this may possibly be owing to their greater age.*

*

• Prince Musignano is of opinion that Wilson took his admeasurement of the borealis from males, and that of the leverianus from females; as he has always found the males in both states of plumage twenty inches, (a size which Wilson gives as that of the borealis) and the females of both, twenty-two inches, (the size of the leverianus as given by Wilson.)

SPECIES 9. FALCO PENNSYLVANICUS.

SLATE-COLOURED HAWK.*

[Plate XLVI.-Fig. 1.]

THIS elegant and spirited little Hawk is a native of Pennsylvania, and of the Atlantic states generally; and is now for the first time introduced to the notice of the public. It frequents the more settled parts of the country, chiefly in winter; is at all times a scarce species; flies wide, very irregular, and swiftly; preys on lizards, mice and small birds, and is an active and daring little hunter. It is drawn of full size, from a very beautiful specimen shot in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. The bird within his grasp is the Tanagra rubra, or Black-winged Red-bird, in its green or first year's dress. In the spring of the succeeding year the green and yellow plumage of this bird becomes of a most splendid scarlet, and the wings and tail deepen into a glossy black.

The great difficulty of accurately discriminating between different species of the Hawk tribe, on account of the various appearances they assume at different periods of their long lives, at first excited a suspicion that this might be one of those with which I was already acquainted, in a different dress, namely, the Sharp-shinned Hawk, figured in plate XLV of this work; for such are the changes of colour to which many individuals.

* By comparing this bird with the Sharp-shinned Hawk, it will be obvious that Wilson had good reason for his first opinion, that they are identical; although he subsequently came to a contrary conclusion. It is probable that they will be found to be the same, and that this is the adult, and the Sharpshinned Hawk the young bird. If this be the case, the name velox, which was first given to this species by Wilson, must be retained; unless indeed it should prove to be identical with the F. fuscus of authors, as asserted by Prince Musig. nano; in which event this latter name must of course, having the priority, be adopted.

of this genus are subject, that unless the naturalist has recourse to those parts that are subject to little or no alteration in the fullgrown bird, viz. the particular conformation of the legs, nostrils, tail, and the relative length of the latter to that of the wings, also the peculiar character of the countenance, he will frequently be deceived. By comparing these, the same species may often be detected under a very different garb. Were all these changes accurately known, there is no doubt but the number of species of this tribe, at present enumerated, would be greatly diminished; the same bird having been described, by certain writers, three, four, and even five different times, as so many distinct species. Testing, however, the present Hawk by the rules above-mentioned, I have no hesitation in considering it as a species different from any hitherto described; and I have classed it accordingly.

The Slate-coloured Hawk is eleven inches long; and twentyone inches in extent; bill blue black; cere and sides of the mouth dull green; eye-lid yellow; eye deep sunk under the projecting eyebrow, and of a fiery orange colour; upper parts of a fine slate; primaries brown black, and, as well as the secondaries, barred with dusky; scapulars spotted with white and brown, which is not seen unless the plumage be separated by the hand; all the feathers above are shafted with black; tail very slightly forked, of an ash colour, faintly tinged with brown, crossed with four broad bands of black, and tipt with white; tail three inches longer than the wings; over the eye extends a streak of dull white; chin white mixed with fine black hairs; breast and belly beautifully variegated with ferruginous and transverse spots of white; femorals the same; vent pure white, legs long, very slender, and of a rich orange yellow; claws black, large, and remarkably sharp; lining of the wing thickly marked with heart-shaped spots of black. This bird on dissection was found to be a male. In the month of February, I shot another individual of this species, near Hampton in Virginia, which agreed almost exactly with the present.