234 WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 



The female Wliite-tailed Hawk is sixteen and a half inches long, and 

 three feet five and a half inches in extent. The bill is black, and 

 measures from the corners of the mouth one inch and a half, the sides 

 of the mouth, posterior portion of the lower mandible, and cere, bright 

 yellow-orange ; bristles on the cere white, as well as those first on the 

 lores, those nearest the eye black ; irides brownish -red; eyelids white; 

 cilia long and black ; orbits black, wider before the eye ; front line 

 over the orbits, sides of the head, neck, and body, and whole inferior 

 surface of the bird, together with the thighs, pure white ; head pearl- 

 gray, becoming gradually darker from the pure white front towards the 

 neck and back, which are entirely bluish-ash, as well as the rump, 

 scapulars, secondaries, and greater wing-coverts ; smaller and middle 

 wing-coverts, deep glossy-black ; spurious wing blackish ; lining of the 

 wing and inferior coverts pure white, the latter with a wide black patch ; 

 primaries on both surfaces slate-color, the shafts black, and, the first 

 excepted, margined exteriorly and slightly at tip with dusky, and 

 interiorly with whitish ; the margin of the inner web is of a remarkably 

 close texture, with a very soft surface ; the first primary is a little 

 shorter than the third ; the second longest ; the two outer ones are 

 slightly serrated on their outer web. When closed, the wings reach 

 wdthin less than an inch of the tip of the tail. The tail is seven inches 

 long, slightly emarginated, and with the outer feather more than half 

 an inch shorter than the adjoining one ; the middle feathers are very 

 pale bluish-slate, all the others pure white ; shafts above, black towards 

 the tip, and beneath white ; that of the exterior tail-feather white, tipped 

 with dusky above towards the base ; feet bright yellow-orange ; tarsus 

 one inch and a half long, feathered in front half its length, the 

 remainder covered with small reticulated scales ; toes separated to the 

 base ; nails large, black, very acute, and with the exception of the 

 middle one, perfectly rounded beneath ; the middle one is very sharp on 

 the inner side. 



The male is of a smaller size ; the upper surface, instead of being 

 bluish-slate, is more of a dirty grayish, slightly tinged with ferruginous ; 

 the tail is less purely white. These sexual diflferences are the more 

 worthy of note, as they are the reverse of what is exhibited in other 

 Hawks. It is, however, possible, that they are not to be found in very 

 old males. 



The young of both sexes, but especially the young males, are some- 

 what darker, and are strongly tinged with ferruginous, principally on 

 the head, neck, and wings ; the breast being entirely of that color. A 

 specimen of the African species in this state, is figured by Le Vaillant, 

 whose plates in general are tolerably accurate ; but how great is the 

 disappointment of the ornithologist to find the tarsi represented as 

 covered distinctly with plates, as in other Hawks ! We cannot let pass 



