GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
291 
the eyes are large, irides of a dark brown ; cere and orbits pale 
bluish white ; the cartilage over the eyes prominent ; frontlet 
whitish ; the head above, cheeks and back, are black ; the wings 
and scapulars are brownish black, each feather edged with paler, 
the former long and pointed, reaching 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 secondaries curiously scalloped, as 
if a piece had been cut out ; the tertials incline to ash colour ; 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 mustaches, are of a pale buff colour ; 
breast below, and lower parts, reddish buff, or pale cinnamon, 
handsomely marked with roundish or heart shaped spots of black ; 
sides broadly barred with black ; the feinorals are elegantly orna- 
mented with herring-bones of black on a buff ground ; the vent is 
pale buff, marked as the femorals, though with less numerous spots; 
the feet and legs are of a dirty white, stained with yellow ochre, 
the legs short and stout, feathered a little below the knees, the 
bare part one inch in length ; span of the foot five inches, with a 
large protuberant sole ; middle toe as long as the tarsus ; the claws 
are large and black, middle one three quarters of an inch long, 
hind claw seven-eighths of an inch. 
The most striking characters of this species are the broad 
patch of black dropping below the eye, and the uncommonly large 
feet. It is stout, heavy, and firmly put together. 
The bird from which the above description was taken, was 
shot in a cedar swamp in Cape May county, Newjersey. It was 
a female, and contained the remains of small birds, among which 
