HAWK, a word of indefinite meaning, often used to include all diurnal birds of prey not vultures or eagles. In a more restricted sense, it excludes buzzards, cons, harriers and kites. Hawks are characterized by short wings, long legs, and a bill curved down directly from the cere, or bare patch at the base, with the edges of the upper beak wavy but not notched. The female is always considerably larger than the male, the irides are yellow, deepening with age to orange or red, and the plumage is striped below in the young, barred in the adult. The largest is the goshawk (q.v.),