II 6 FISH HAWK, OR OS PREY. 



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, prodi- 

 giously strong and disproportionably large ; they are covered 

 with flat scales of remarkable strength and thickness, resem- 

 bling, when dry, the teeth of a large rasp, particularly 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 dissection, the two glands on 

 the rump, which supply the bird with oil for lubricating its 

 feathers to protect them from the wet, were found to be 

 remarkably 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 in- 

 testines 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 



