GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. Iss 
to each foot on the 24th September 1772, and was killed on 
the morning of the 26th, near Mostyn, Flintshire.’* 
The same naturalist in another place observes, that “the 
American species is larger than the Huropean.t They are 
subject to vary. The black falcon, and the spotted falcon of 
Edwards, are of this kind ; each preserves a specific mark in 
the black stroke which drops from beneath the eyes down 
towards the neck. 
“Tnhabits different parts of North America, from Hudson’s 
Bay as low as Carolina; in Asia, is found on the highest parts 
of the Uralian and Siberian chain ; wandersin summer to the 
very arctic circle; is common in Kamtschatka.’’t 
In the breeding season, the duck-hawk retires to the recesses 
of the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees of which it con- 
structs its nest, and rears its young secure from all molestation. 
In those wilds, which present obstacles almost insuperable to 
the foot of man, the screams of this bird, occasionally mingled 
with the hoarse tones of the heron, and the hooting of the great 
horned owl, echoing through the dreary solitude, arouse in 
the imagination all the frightful imagery of desolation. Mr 
Wilson and the writer of this article explored two of these 
swamps in the month of May 1813, in pursuit of the great 
heron and the subject of this chapter ; and although they were 
successful in obtaining the former, yet the latter eluded their 
research. 
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 colour, ending in black; the upper mandible 
with a tooth-like process, 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 
* British Zoology. 
+ If we were to adopt the mode of philosophising of the sapient Count 
de Buffon, we should infer that the European species is a variety of our 
more generous race, degenerated by the influence of food and climate ! 
{ Arctic Zoology. 
