RED-TAILED HAWK. 365 



" The Red-tailed Hawk is twenty inches long, and three 

 feet nine inches in extent; bill blue black; cere and sides 

 of the mouth yellow, tinged with green ; lores and spot on 

 the under eye-lid white, the former marked with fine 

 radiating hairs; eye-brow, or cartilage, a dull eel-skin 

 color, prominent, projecting over the eye ; a broad streak 

 of dark brown extends from the sides of the mouth back- 

 wards; crown and hind-head dark brown, seamed with 

 white and ferruginous; sides of the neck dull ferruginous, 

 streaked with brown ; eye large ; iris pale amber ; back 

 and shoulders deep brown; wings dusky, barred with 

 blackish ; ends of the five first primaries nearly black ; 

 scapularies barred broadly with white and brown ; sides 

 of the tail-coverts white, barred with ferruginous, middle 

 ones dark, edged with rust ; tail rounded, extending two 

 inches beyond the wings, and of a bright red brown, with 

 a single band of black near the end, and tipped with 

 brownish white ; on some of the lateral feathers are slight 

 indications of the remains of other narrow bars ; lower 

 parts brownish white ; the breast ferruginous, streaked 

 with dark brown ; across the belly a. band of interrupted 

 spots of brown ; skin white ; femorals and vent pale brown- 

 ish white, the former marked with a few minute heart- 

 shaped spots of brown ; legs yellow, feathered half way 

 below the knees." 



The male differs from the female, in being somewhat 

 smaller, and having more brightness of color throughout its 

 plumage, and a more strongly defined black band across 

 the tail. 



