34 
GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
Low says, that this species is found in all the head-lands, and 
other inaccessible rocks, of Orkney. ‘‘ It is the falcon, or more 
nohle species of hawk, which was formerly so much coveted, 
and brought from Orkney. In the Burgh of Birsa I observed 
the dark-coloured kind, so beautifully engraved in the addi- 
tional volume of the British Zoology. It is likewise found in 
Marwick-head, Hoy, Walls, Copinsha, and elsewhere in Ork- 
ney; likewise in the Fair Isle and Foula; as also in Lamhoga 
of Fetlor, Fitful, and Sumburgh-Heads of Shetland. 
“ Never more than one pair of this species inhabit the same 
rock; and when the young are fit, they are driven out to seek 
new habitations for themselves. The Falcon’s nest, like the 
Eagle’s, is always in the very same spot, and continues so past 
memory of man.”* 
In the breeding season, the Buck Hawk retires to the re- 
cesses of the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees of which 
it constructs its nest, and rears its young, secure from all mo- 
lestation. In those wilds, which present obstacles almost in- 
superable to the foot of man, the screams of this bird, occasion- 
ally mingled with the hoarse tones of the Heron, and the boot- 
ings of the Great-horned Owl, echoing through the dreary soli- 
tude, arouse in the imagination all the frightful imagery of de- 
solation. 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 former, yet the latter 
eluded their research. 
The Great-footed Hawk is twenty inches in length, and three 
feet eight inches in breadth; the bill is inflated, short and strong, 
of a light blue colour, ending in black, the upper mandible 
with a tooth-like process, the lower with a corresponding notch, 
and truncate; nostrils round, with a central point like the pistil 
of a flower; the eyes are large, irides of a dark brown; cere 
* Low’s Natural History of tlie Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, 
of Orkney and Shetland; published by William Elford Leach, M. D., 4to. 
1813. 
