BRITISH BIRDS. 
7 
equal in size to an Eagle, and has a powerful as well 
as a dignified look. The bill is strong, much hook- 
ed, and black ; the claws are the same ; the irides are 
reddish orange ; the legs are very stout, and covered 
with a great thickness of short mottled brown feathers ; 
the toes are the same down to the claws. The pre- 
dominant colours of the plumage are very dark brown 
and ferruginous, but they are mixed and beautifully 
variegated with markings and shades of black, brown, 
and yellow, with spots of white, crossed with zig-zag 
lines, and innumerable minute specklings of white, ash 
colour, and brown. The outline of our figure was taken 
from a living bird exhibited in a show, the markings 
of the plumage from a very ill stuffed specimen of the 
bird, which was taken on the coast of Norway, and 
obligingly lent to this work by Captain Wm Gilchrist, 
of this port. These birds are sometimes met with in 
the northern Scottish isles, where they prey upon Rab- 
bits and Grouse, which are numerous there, but they 
are very rarely seen in England. 
