156 . ACCIPITRES. 



though not so plentiful as some of the others, it is pretty 

 generally distributed over our islands, wherever the trees are 

 thick enough to afford it that depth of shade in which it 

 delights. It wants shade and shelter all the year round ; 

 and therefore it prefers the evergreen forest to the deciduous 

 one, and the dark and thickly-clustering spruce to the more 

 open branches and light foliage of the pine ; but it is a bird 

 of the champaign country rather than of the wild j and 

 hence it is not met with at very great elevations. 



It is a bird of considerable size, the female measuring 

 about fifteen inches in length, and forty in extent of the 

 wings ; and weighing about ten ounces. The male is smaller. 

 The weight is in tolerably fair proportion to the dimensions, 

 as compared with more formidable birds of prey, but it is 

 small as compared with the bulk ; and hence the bird steals 

 as silently through the air as if it were altogether a bundle 

 of soft feathers. 



The plumage is rich in its ground-colours, and finely and 

 elaborately marked. The ground-colour of the upper part 

 is orange, and that of the under part buff. The upper is 

 marked with bkck streaks, and finely and minutely sprinkled 

 with white, grey, and black, lighter at the margins of the 

 feathers, so as to give them distinctness and relief, but ex- 

 quisitely marbled toward the shafts. The markings on the 

 under parts are lines and arrow-head spots. The quills are 

 orange brown, barred with blackish brown ; and the tail- 

 feathers greyish orange, barred and spotted with black The 

 feathers on the tarsi and toes, which are without markings, 

 are nearly the same colour as the tail. The irides are bright 

 reddish orange, and give the eyes a very fiery expression, 

 surrounded as they are by radiated conchas, marked with 

 white, grey, and black, the black contrasting with white at 

 at the inner angle, and giving an appearance of depth and 

 enforcement to the eye. The ear-tufts, or horns, which the 



