ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON. 379 



comparatively short ; claws and bill blue-black ; iris of the eye bright 

 amber ; upper part of the head pale ochre, streaked with brown ; back 

 and wings chocolate, each feather edged with bright ferruginous; first 

 four primaries nearly black about the tips, edged externally with silvery 

 in some lights ; rest of the quills dark chocolate ; lower, side, and interior 

 vanes white ; tail-coverts white ; tail rounded, white, with a broad band 

 of dark brown near the end, and tipt with white ; body below, and bi-east, 

 light yellow ochre, blotched and streaked with chocolate. What consti- 

 tutes a characteristic mark of this bird, is a belt or girdle of very dark 

 brown, passing round the belly just below the breast, and reaching under 

 the wings to the rump ; head very broad, and bill uncommonly small, 

 suited to the humility of its prey. 



" The female is much darker both above and below, particularly in 

 the belt or girdle, which is nearly black ; the tail-coverts are also spotted 

 with chocolate ; she is also something larger. 



" The Black Hawk is twenty-one inches long, and four feet two inches 

 in extent ; bill bluish-black ; cere and sides of the mouth orange-yellow ; 

 feet the same ; eye very large ; iris bright hazel ; cartilage overhanging 

 the eye prominently, of a dull greenish colour; general colour above 

 brown-black, slightly dashed with dirty white ; nape of the neck pure 

 white under the surface ; front white ; whole lower parts black, with 

 slight tinges of brown ; and a few circular touches of the same on the 

 femorals ; legs feathered to the toes, and black, touched with brownish ; 

 the wings reach rather beyond the tip of the tail ; the five first primaries 

 are white on their inner vanes ; tail rounded at the end, deep black, 

 crossed with five narrow bands of pure white, and broadly tipped with 

 dull white ; vent black, spotted with white ; inside vanes of the primaries 

 snowy ; claws black, strong, and sharp ; toes remarkably short." 



I have frequently examined the very specimen from which Wil- 

 son took his figure of the Falco niger, and which is now in the col- 

 lection of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. On com- 

 paring it with specimens of the Rough- legged Falcon in its ordinary 

 states, I could discover no essential differences, nor, in fact, any except- 

 ing such as have reference to colour, a circumstance or quality which in 

 hawks is known to vary so much in almost every species at different pe- 

 riods of their lives, that it would be useless for me to offer any remarks 

 on the subject. Besides this, Wilson's figure is by no means correct as 

 to colouring, it being in fact black, in contradiction to his description. I 



