296 
BROAD-WINGED HAWK. 
black, blue near the base, slightly toothed; cere and corners 
of the mouth, yellow; irides, bright amber; frontlet and lores, 
white ; from the mouth backwards runs a streak of blackish 
brown ; upper parts, dark brown, the plumage tipt, and the 
head streaked with whitish ; almost all the feathers above are 
spotted or barred with white, but this is not seen unless they 
be separated by the hand ; head, large, broad, and flat ; cere 
very broad ; the nostril also large ; tail short, the exterior and 
interior feathers somewhat the shortest, the others rather 
longer, of a full black, and crossed with two bars of white, 
tipt also slightly with whitish ; tail-coverts, spotted with white ; 
wings, dusky brown, indistinctly barred with black ; greater 
part of the inner vanes, snowy ; lesser coverts, and upper part 
of the back, tipt and streaked with bright ferruginous ; the bars 
of black are very distinct on the lower side of the wing ; lining 
of the wing, brownish white, beautifully marked with small 
arrow-heads of brown ; chin, white, surrounded by streaks of 
black ; breast and sides, elegantly spotted with large arrow- 
heads of brown, centered with pale brown ; belly and vent, like 
the breast, white, but more thinly marked with pointed spots 
of brown ; femorals, brownish white, thickly marked with small 
touches of brown and white ; vent, white ; legs, very stout ; 
feet, coarsely scaled, both of a dirty orange yellow; claws, 
semicircular, strong and very sharp, hind one considerably the 
largest. 
While examining the plumage of this bird, a short time 
after it was shot, one of those winged ticks with which many 
of our birds are infested, appeared on the surface of the 
feathers, moving about as they usually do, backwards or 
sideways like a crab, among the plumage, with great facility. 
The Fish Hawk, in particular, is greatly pestered with these 
vermin, which occasionally leave him, as suits their convenience. 
A gentleman who made the experiment, assured me, that, on 
plunging a live Fish Hawk under water, several of these winged 
ticks remained hovering over the spot, and, the instant the 
Flawk rose above the surface, darted again among his plumage. 
The experiment was several times made, with the like result. 
