193 



DESCRIPTION OF A HAWK SHOT IN lb51, ON THE CHEVET 



PARK ESTATE, BY WILLIAM BEVERS, KEEPER TO THE LATE 



SIR THOMAS PILKINGTON. 



BY RICHARD HOBSON, ESQ., M.D., CANTAB. 



Its general contour is that of a Merlin or Hobby, with the exception of 

 its head, which is neither so broad nor so round. Its upper mandible is three- 

 quarters of an inch long ; eere orange ; point incurvated, and a horny white ; 

 space between cere and point a dusky black; and immediately behind the 

 point there is a distinct dentate process. Nostrils elliptical in form, and 

 oblique in position ; being about one-eighth of an inch in length. 



The under ed(je of the upper mandible ; from the angle of the mouth to 

 the point, is three-quarters of an inch; that half extending from the angle 

 being orange, and the remaining half a horny white. Distance between the 

 eyes eleven-sixteenths ; between the nostrils three-sixteenths ; across the 

 lower mandible, from angle to angle at its base, eleven-sixteenths. 



The frontal and vertical regions are obscure rufous; each feather having a 

 dark brown streak down its centre, with a rufous margin laterally, and tipped 

 with rufous. 



On the occiput there is a whitish patch, extending longitudinally three- 

 quarters of an inch, and somewhat more transversly. Some of the fciithers 

 forming this patch are perfectly white, whilst others are streaked down the 

 centre, and some tipped with brown and rufous. From each side of this 

 white patch, towards its base, there is a trifling extension of grey right and 

 left, towards the lateral portions of the neck. 



The gular and jugular portions of the anterior part of the neck are per- 

 fectly white. The lo7-e is covered by a black moustach, half an inch long, and 

 curving up under the eye. Its width is about three-sixteenths of an inch. 

 From its upper extreme point, on each side of the head, grow black bristly 

 plumelets, thinly covering the cere, and extending towards the basal termina- 

 tion of the dorsal line of the upper mandible ; but they do not grow on the 

 dorsal line itself. 



The eyelashes are black ; the supra and infra ocular spaces being thinly 

 covered with short bristly plumelets, some black, and others white, on an 

 orange ground, which gives i-ather a predominating orange hue to these 

 spaces. The ear coverts are dark rufous. The posterior poi'tion of the neck 

 inferiorly is dark rufous, laterally it is pale rufous, but tipped at the base, and 

 each feather streaked down the centre with dark brown. 



The entire thorax is rufous, each feather having a black brown streak 

 down its centre to the very tip, and the remaining portions of these feathers 

 altogether rufous. From thence to the under tail coverts, the feathers are 

 perfectly white. The tibial feathers, extending over the tai-si, are ali_Ydiite, 

 excepting a rufous tint at their extremities on one side only /^^^c3r-^4C^ 



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