GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 35 



and orbits pale bluish white; the cartilage over the eyes promi- 

 nent; frontlet whitish; the head above, cheeks and back, are 

 black; the wings and scapulars are brownish black, each feather 

 edged with paler, the former long and pointed, reaching al- 

 most to the end of the tail; the primaries and secondaries are 

 marked transversely, on the inner vanes, with large oblong 

 spots of ferruginous white; the exterior edge of the tip of the 

 secondaries curiously scalloped, as if a piece had been cut out; 

 the tertials incline to ash colour; the lining of the wings is 

 beautifully barred with black and white, and tinged with fer- 

 ruginous; on a close examination, the scapulars and tertials are 

 found to be barred with faint ash; all the shafts are black; the 

 rump and tail-coverts are light ash, marked with large dusky 

 bars; the tail is rounding, black, tipped with reddish white, 

 and crossed with eight narrow bars of very faint ash ; the chin 

 and breast, encircling the black mustaches, are of a pale buff 

 colour; breast below, and lower parts, reddish buff, or pale cin- 

 namon, handsomely marked with roundish or heart-shaped 

 spots of black; sides broadly barred with black; the femorals 

 are elegantly ornamented with herring-bones of black, on a buff 

 ground; the vent is pale buff, marked as the femorals, though 

 with less numerous spots; the feet and legs are of a dirty white, 

 stained with yellow ochre, the legs short and stout, feathered 

 a little below the knees, the bare part one inch in length; span 

 of the foot five inches, with a large protuberant sole; middle 

 toe as long as the tarsus; the claws are large and black, middle 

 one three-quarters of an inch long, hind claw seven-eights of 

 an inch. 



The most striking characters of this species are the broad 

 patch of black dropping below the eye, and the uncommonly 

 large feet. It is stout, heavy, and firmly put together. 



The bird from which the above description was taken, was 

 shot in a cedar swamp, in Cape May county, New Jersey. It 

 was a female, and contained the remains of small birds, among 

 which were discovered the legs of the Sanderling. The figure 





