AMERICAN BUZZARD, OR WHITE-BREASTED HAWK. 283 
the present species I have sometimes found the ground colour 
of the tail strongly tinged with ferruginous, and the bars of 
dusky but slight; while in the preceding the tail is sometimes 
wholly red brown, the single bar of black near the tip excepted ; 
in other specimens evident remains of numerous other bars 
are visible. In the meantime, both are figured, and future 
observations may throw more light on the matter. 
This bird is more numerous than the last ; but frequents 
the same situations in winter. One, which was shot on the 
wing, lived with me several weeks ; but refused to eat. It 
amused itself by frequently hopping from one end of the room 
to the other; and sitting for hours at the window, looking 
down on the passengers below. At first, when approached by 
any person, he generally put himself in the position in which 
he is represented ; but after some time he became quite familiar, 
permitting himself to be handled, and shutting his eyes, as if 
quite passive. Though he lived so long without food, he was 
found on dissection to be exceedingly fat, his stomach being 
enveloped in a mass of solid fat of nearly an inch in thickness. 
The White-breasted Hawk is twenty-two inches long, and 
four feet in extent ; cere, pale green ; bill, pale blue, black at 
the point; eye, bright straw colour; eyebrow, projecting 
greatly ; head, broad, flat, and large ; upper part of the head, 
sides of the neck and back, brown, streaked and seamed with 
white and some pale rust ; scapulars and wing-coverts, spotted 
with white ; wing-quills much resembling the preceding 
species ; tail-coverts, white, handsomely barred with brown ; 
tail, slightly rounded, of a pale brown colour, varying in some 
to a sorrel, crossed by nine or ten bars of black, and tipt for 
half an inch with white ; wings, brown, barred with dusky ; 
inner vanes nearly all white ; chin, throat, and breast, pure 
white, with the exception of some slight touches of brown that 
enclose the chin ; femorals, yellowish white, thinly marked 
with minute touches of rust; legs, bright yellow, feathered 
half way down ; belly, broadly spotted with black or very 
deep brown ; the tips of the wings reach to the middle of the 
tail. 
