156 GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
a broad bare yellowish skin, the cartilage over it yellow and 
prominent; frontlet, whitish ; the head above, cheeks running 
off like moustaches, 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 primaries 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 
colour ; the lining of the wings is beautifully barred with black 
and white, and tinged with ferruginous ; on a close examina- 
tion, 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 round- 
ing, black, tipped with reddish white, and crossed with eight 
narrow bars of very faint ash; the chin and breast, encircling 
the black moustaches, are of a pale buff colour ; breast below and 
lower parts, reddish buff or pale cinnamon, 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 a 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 yellow or flesh-coloured, we were un- 
certain, 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 discovered the legs of the sanderling plover. 
