BROAD-WINGED HAWK. 299 



of wins:, or width of the secondaries, and also of its head and 

 body, when compared with its length, struck me as peculia- 

 rities. 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 cer- 

 tainly 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 I 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 of these authors are very inaccurate, the 

 change of colour 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 tipt and the 

 head streaked with whitish ; almost 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 exterior and 

 interior feathers somewhat the shortest, the others rather 

 longer, of a full black, and crossed with two bars of white, 

 * Arctic Zoology, No. 109. 



