He is also a vehicle of Indra. Polynesians endowed the hawk with the powers of prophecy and healing. The Chinese associated this bird with war. There are over 250 species of hawks around the world. The remarkable rapidity of their flight caused the Egyptians to make hawks the hieroglyphic emblem of the wind.
Most hawks prefer the wilderness to busy cities.
Because of the hawk's swiftness in darting down and grasping its prey, this raptor is a symbol of death, injustice, violence, and those people who prey upon the weak. In Christian symbolism this bird is the antithesis of the dove. According to Mosaic Law, hawks and other birds of prey are unclean and not to be eaten by Israelites. Many Christian teachers believed this rule was to teach God's people that they should not be united with predatory men and those who plundered the earnings of others. The Shawnee tell the story of man named Waupee or White Hawk who captured and married the youngest daughter of a Star.