GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 681 
The Great-footed Hawk is twenty inches in length, and three feet 
eight inches in extent; the bill is inflated, short and strong, of a light 
blue color, ending in black, the upper mandible with a tooth-like pro- 
cess, the lower, with a corresponding notch, and truncate; nostrils, 
round, with a central point like the pistil of a flower; the eye is large 
and dark, surrounded with a broad, bare, yellowish skin, the cartilage 
over it yellow and prominent; frontlet, whitish ; the head above, cheeks 
Tunning off like mustaches, and back, are black; the wings and scapu- 
lars are brownish black, each feather edged with paler, the former long 
and pointed, reaching almost to the end of the tail; the primarics 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 color; the lining of the wings is beautifully 
barred with black and white, and tinged with ferruginous ; 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 color; 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 corn yellow, the latter 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; the claws 
are large and black, hind claw the largest. Whether the cere ‘is yel- 
low or flesh colored, we were uncertain, as the bird had been some 
time killed when received ; supposed the former. 
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 dis- 
covered the legs of the Sanderling Plover. 
