GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
35 
and orbits pale bluish white; the cartilage over the eyes promi- 
nent; 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 al- 
most 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 fer- 
ruginous; 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 cin- 
namon, handsomely marked with roundish or heart-shaped 
spots of black; sides broadly barred with black; the femorals 
are elegantly ornamented 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-eights 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. New Jersey. It 
was a female, and contained the remains of small birds, among 
which were discovered the legs of the Sanderling. The figure 
