256 
GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
ject to vary. The black falcon, and the spotted falcon of Ed- 
wards, are of this kind; each preserves a specific mark, in the 
black stroke which drops from beneath the eyes, down towards 
the neck. 
‘‘ Inhabits different parts of North America, from Hudson’s 
Bay, as low as Carolina ; in Asia, is found on the highest parts 
of the Uralian and Siberian chain ; wanders in summer to the 
very Arctic circle ; is common in Kamtschatka.”* 
In the breeding season, the duck hawk retires to the recesses 
of the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees of which it con- 
structs its nests, and rears its young secure from all molestation. 
In those wilds, which present obstacles almost insuperable to 
the foot of man, the screams of this bird, occasionally mingled 
with the hoarse tones of the heron, and the hooting of the great- 
horned owl, echoing through the dreary solitude, arouse in the 
imagination all the frightful imagery of desolation. Mr Wil- 
son, 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 extent ; 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 eye is large and dark, surrounded with 
a broad bare yellowish skin, the cartilage over it yellow and 
prominent ; frontlet, whitish ; the head above, cheeks running 
off like mustaches, and back, are black ; the wings and scapu- 
lars 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 
fon, we should infer that the European species is a variety of our more generous 
race, degenerated by the influence of food and climate ! 
* Arctic Zoology. 
