Harpa ferox, Peale. (Bush-hawk.)

At Waipuna, in Hawke's Bay, I saw, on the 17th March, a young Bush Hawk boldly attack a litter of kittens, whilst actually under the protection of the maternal cat! It seized one of them and lifted it some feet in the air. The quarry managed, however, to disengage itself and dropped to the ground. The hawk, which, from its size, I took to be a female, then settled on the dry limb of a tree close by, apparently to await another opportunity; and there we left her, balancing her body in an almost horizontal position, and looming large against the clear blue sky beyond.