BROAD-WINGED AWK. 461 
Its great breadth of wing, or width of the secondaries, and also of its 
head and body, when compared with its length, struck me as peculiar- 
«ities. It seemed a remarkably strong-built bird, handsomely marked, 
and was altogether unknown to me. Mr. Bartram, who examined it 
very attentively, declared he had never before seen such a Hawk. On 
the afternoon of the next day, I observed another, probably its mate or 
companion, and certainly one of the same species, sailing about over 
the same woods. Its motions were in wide circles, with unmoving 
wings, the exterior outline of which seemed a complete semicircle. I 
was extremely anxious to procure this also, if possible; but it was 
attacked and driven away by a King-Bird before I could effect my 
purpose ; and J have never since been fortunate enough to meet with 
another. On dissection, the one which I had shot proved to be a male. 
In size this Hawk agrees, nearly, with the Buzzardet (Falco albidus 
of Turton, described also by Pennant ;* but either the descriptions o 
these authors are very inaccurate, the change of color which that bird 
undergoes very great, or the present is altogether a different species. 
Until, however, some’ other specimens’ of this Hawk come under my 
observation, I can only add to the figure here given, and which is a 
good likeness of the original, the following particulars of its size and 
plumage : — 
Length, fourteen inches; extent, thirty-three inches; bill, black, 
blue near the base, slightly toothed ; cere and corners of the mouth, 
yellow; irides, bright amber; frontlet and lores, white; from the 
mouth backwards runs a streak of blackish brown ; upper parts, dark 
brown, the plumage tipped, and the head streaked with whitish ; al- 
most all the feathers above are spotted or barred with white, but this 
is not seen unless they be separated by the hand; head, large, broad, 
and flat ; cere, very broad; the nostril, also large; tail, short, the exte- 
rior and interior feathers somewhat the shortest, the others rather 
longer, of a full black, and crossed with two bars of white, tipped also 
slightly with whitish; tail-coverts, spotted with white; wings, dusky 
brown, indistinctly barred with black; greater part of the inner vanes, 
snowy ; lesser coverts, and upper part of the back, tipped and streaked 
with bright ferruginous; the bars of black are very distinct on the 
lower side of the wing ; lining of the wing, brownish white, beautifully 
marked with small arrow-heads of brown; chin, white, surrounded by 
streaks of black; breast and sides, elegantly spotted with large arrow- 
heads of brown, centred with pale brown; belly and vent, like the 
breast, white, but more thinly marked with pointed spots of brown; 
femorals, brownish white, thickly marked with small touches of brown 
and white; vent, white; legs, very stout; feet, coarsely scaled, both 
of a dirty orange yellow; claws, semicircular, strong, and very sharp, 
hind one considerably the largest. 
While examining the plumage of this bird, a short time after it was 
‘shot, one of those winged ticks with which many of our birds are in- 
fested, appeared on the surface of the feathers, moving about as they 
usually do, backwards or sideways like a crab, among the plumage, 
with great facility. The Fish Hawk, in particular, is greatly pestered 
with these vermin, which occasionally leave him, as suits their con- 
» Arctic Zoology, No. 109. 
39* 
