Hawk with notes

Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions (10 passages in 21 columns in semi-cursive script, from right to left and top to bottom)

Top of the head in yellowish green (more color?). Scales in diluted ink washes.

Five scales rendered with white powder washes spreading upwards.

The base color of the chest is the same as that of the neck. White spots among black fluffy hair.

The beak is black, pointed, deep and slightly green at the root.

The base color of the neck is yellowish ochre with more yellow and less ochre, strewn with white-powdered spots.

The base color is the same as that of the neck. The feathers are white; the striped patterns are slightly dark. White powder and fluffy hair.

Yellowish green base color generously applied (?).

Black. The ink spreads upwards from the tip of each wing.

The shafts of the feathers are black with extra delineation in white powder.

For tail features, use abundant green for base color and add black-and-white striped patterns toward both sides.

[Translation by Shi-yee Liu]

頂黃綠（廿多），鱗片淡墨運開。
五片白粉向上運開。
胸底色與頸同，白點黑絲。
嘴黑尖深，根部微綠。
頸黃赭底，黃多赭少，白粉點。
底色同頸，羽白條花略暗，白粉絲毛。
黃綠底廿多。
黑，各翅自尖向上運開。
羽軸黑，上再用白粉勾。
尾羽統廿綠底（廿多），再用黑白條花兩邊運開。

Sarah Shay , Arlington, VA (until 2005; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhiliu (1910–1997)," February 2–August 1, 2010.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Noble Virtues: Nature as Symbol in Chinese Art," September 10, 2022–January 29, 2023.