WINTER FALCON. 
77 
enormously with these reptiles, that the prominency of his craw makes 
a large bunch, and he appears to fly with difficulty. I liave taken the 
broken fragments, and whole carcasses, of ten frogs, of different dimen- 
sions, from the crop of a single individual. Of his genius and other 
exploits I am unable to say much. He appears to be a fearless and 
active bird, silent, and not very shy. One which I kept for some time, 
and which was slightly wounded, disdained all attempts made to recon- 
cile him to confinement ; and would not suffer a person to approach, 
without being highly irritated ; throwing himself backward, and strik- 
ing with expanded talons, with great fury. Though shorter winged 
than some of his tribe, yet I have no doubt, but, with proper care, he 
might be trained to strike nobler game, in a bold style, and with great 
effect. But the education of Hawks in this country may well be post- 
poned for a time, until fewer improvements remain to be made in that 
of the liuman subject. 
Length of the Winter Hawk twenty inches, extent forty-one inches, 
or nearly three feet six inches ; cere and legs yellow, the latter long, 
and feathered for an inch below the knee ; bill bluish l)lack, small, fur- 
nished with a tooth in the upper mandible ; eye bright amber, cartilage 
over the eye very prominent, and of a dull green ; head, sides of the 
neck, and tliroa.t, dark brown, streaked with white ; lesser coverts with 
a strong glow of ferruginous ; secondaries pale brown, indistinctly 
barred with darker ; primaries brownish orange, spotted Avith black, 
wholly black at tlie tips ; tail long, slightly roundeil, barred alternately 
with dark and pale brown, inner vanes white, exterior feathers brownish 
orange ; wings, when closed, reach rather beyond the middle of the 
tail ; tail-coverts white, marked Avith heart-shaped spots of brown ; 
breast and belly Avhite, Avith numerous long drops of broAvn, the shafts 
blackish ; femoral feathers large, pale yelloAV" ochre, marked with 
numerous minute streaks of pale broAvn ; claAvs black. The legs of 
this bird are represented by different authors as slender ; but I saw no 
appearance of this in those I examined. 
"The female is considerably darker above, and about tAA'o inches 
longer. 
