BROAD- WINGED HAWK. 



93 



109.) but either the descriptions of these authors are very inaccu- 

 rate, 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 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, 

 tipt 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 tipt 

 and streaked with bright ferruginous; the bars of black are very 

 distinct on the lower side of the wing; lining of the wing brown- 

 ish white, beautifully marked with small arrow heads of brown; 

 chin white, surrounded by streaks of black; breast and sides ele- 

 gantly spotted with large arrow-heads of brown centered 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 con- 

 siderably 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 infested, appeared on the surface of the feathers, moving 



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