

34 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK, 



Low says, that this species is found in all the head-lands, and 

 other inaccessible rocks, of Orkney. " It is the falcon, or more 

 noble species of hawk, which was formerly so much coveted, 

 and brought from Orkney. In the Burgh of Birsa I observed 

 the dark-coloured kind, so beautifully engraved in the addi- 

 tional volume of the British Zoology. It is likewise found in 

 Marwick-head, Hoy, Walls, Copinsha, and elsewhere in Ork- 

 ney; likewise in the Fair Isle and Foula; as also in Lamhoga 

 of Fetlor, Fitful, and Sumburgh-Heads of Shetland. 



" Never more than one pair of this species inhabit the same 

 rock; and when the young are fit, they are driven out to seek 

 new habitations for themselves. The Falcon's nest, like the 

 Eagle's, is always in the very same spot, and continues so past 

 memory of man."* 



In the breeding season, the Duck Hawk retires to the re- 

 cesses of the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees of which 

 it constructs its nest, and rears its young, secure from all mo- 

 lestation. In those wilds, which present obstacles almost in- 

 superable to the foot of man, the screams of this bird, occasion- 

 ally mingled with the hoarse tones of the Heron, and the hoot- 

 ings of the Great-horned Owl, echoing through the dreary soli- 

 tude, arouse in the imagination all the frightful imagery of de- 

 solation. Wilson, and the writer of this article, explored two 

 of these swamps, in the month of May, 1813, in pursuit of the 

 Great Heron, and the subject of this chapter; and although 

 they were successful in obtaining the former, yet the latter 

 eluded their research. 



The Great-footed Hawk is twenty inches in length, and three 

 feet eight inches in breadth; the bill is inflated, short and strong, 

 of a light blue colour, ending in black, the upper mandible 

 with a tooth-like process, the lower with a corresponding notch, 

 and truncate; nostrils round, with a central point like the pistil 

 of a flower; the eyes are large, irides of a dark brown; cere 



* Low's Natural History of the Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, 

 of Orkney and Shetland; published by William Elford Leach, M. D., 4to. 

 1813. 



