56 FISH-HAWK, OR OSPRBY. 



inches in extent ; the bill is deep black, the upper as well as lower cere, 

 (for the base of the lower mandible has a loose movable skin) and also 

 the sides of the mouth, from the nostrils backwards, are light blue; 

 crown and hind-head pure white, front streaked with brown ; through 

 the eye a bar of dark blackish brown passes to the neck behind, which, 

 as well as the whole upper parts, is deep brown, the edges of the fea- 

 thers lighter ; shafts of the wing quills brownish white ; tail slightly 

 rounded, of rather a paler brown than the body, crossed with eight bars 

 of very dark brown ; the wings when shut extend about an inch beyond 

 the tail, and are nearly black towards the tips ; the inner vanes of both 

 quill and tail feathers are whitish, barred with brown ; whole lower 

 parts pure white, except the thighs, which are covered with short 

 plumage, and streaked down the fore part with pale brown ; the legs 

 and feet are a very pale light blue, prodigiously strong and dispropor- 

 tionably large, they are covered with flat scales of remarkable strength 

 and thickness, resembling when dry the teeth of a large rasp, particu- 

 larly on the soles, intended no doubt to enable the bird to seize with 

 more security his slippery prey; the thighs are long, the legs short, 

 feathered a little below the knee, and as well as the feet and claws large ; 

 the latter hooked into semicircles, black, and very sharp pointed ; the 

 iris of the eye a fiery yellow orange. 



The female is full two inches longer ; the upper part of the head of a 

 less pure white, and the brown streaks on the front spreading more over 

 the crown ; the throat and upper part of the breast are also dashed 

 with large blotches of a pale brown, and the bar passing through the eye, 

 not of so dark a brown. The toes of both are exceedingly strong and 

 warty, and the hind claw a full inch and a quarter in diameter. The 

 feathers on the neck and hind-head are long and narrow, and generally 

 erected when the bird is irritated, resembling those of the Eagle. The 

 eye is destitute of the projecting bone common to most of the Falcon 

 tribe, the nostril large, and of a curving triangular shape. On dissec- 

 tion, the two glands on the rump, which supply the "bird with oil for lubri- 

 cating its feathers, to protect them from the wet, were found to be remark- 

 ably large, capable, when opened, of admitting the end of the finger, 

 and contained a large quantity of white greasy matter, and some pure 

 yellow oil ; the gall was in small quantity ; the numerous convolutions 

 and length of the intestines surprised me ; when carefully extended they 

 measured within an inch or two of nine feet, and were no thicker than 

 those of a Robin ! The crop, or craw, was middle-sized, and contained 

 a nearly dissolved fish ; the stomach was a large oblong pouch, capable 

 of considerable distension, and was also filled with half-digested fish ; no 

 appearance of a muscular gizzard. 



By the descriptions of European naturalists, it would appear that this 

 bird, or one near akin to it, is a native of the Eastern continent in sum- 



