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GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 



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 imagina- 

 tion all the friglitful 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 for- 

 mer, 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 color, ending in black, the upper mandible with a 

 tooth-like process, the lower with a corresponding notch, and trun- 

 cate ; nostrils round, with a central point like the pistil of a flow- 

 er ; the eye is large and dark, surrounded with a broad bare yel- 

 lowish skin, the cartilage over it yellow and prominent; frontlet 

 whitish ; the head above, cheeks running off like mustaches, and 

 back are black; the wings and scapulars are brownish black, each 

 feather edged with paler, the former long and pointed, I'eaching 

 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 seconda- 

 ries curiously scalloped, as if a piece had been cut out ; the ter- 

 tials incline to ash color ; the lining of the wings is beautifully 

 barred with black and white, and tinged with ferruginous ; on a 

 close examination 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 rounding, 

 black, tipped with reddish white, and crossed with eight narrow 

 bars of very faint ash ; the chin and breast, encircling the black 



