48 
FALCO HALIiETUS, 
the sides of the mouth, from the nostrils backwards, 
are light blue ; crown and hind h ead pure white, front 
streaked with brown; through the eye, a bar of dark 
blackish brown passes to the neck behind, which, as 
well as the whole upper parts, is deep brown, the edges 
of the feathers lighter ; shafts of the wing quills brown- 
ish white ; tail slightly rounded, of rather a paler brown 
than the body, crossed with eight bars of very dark 
brown; the wings, when shut, extend about an inch 
beyond the tail, and are nearly black towards the tips ; 
the inner vanes of both quill and tail feathers are 
whitish, barred with brown ; whole lower parts pure 
white, except the thighs, which are covered with short 
plumage, and streaked down the fore part with pale 
brown ; the legs and feet are a very pale light blue, 
prodigiously strong and disproportionably large, and 
are covered with flat scales of remarkable strength and 
thickness, resembling, when dry, the teeth of a large 
rasp, particularly on the soles, intended, no doubt, to 
enable the bird to seize with more security his slippery 
prey ; the thighs are long, the legs short, feathered a 
little below the knee, and, as well as the feet and claws, 
large; the latter hooked into semicircles, black, and 
very sharp pointed ; the iris of the eye a fiery yellow 
orange. 
The female is full two inches longer ; the upper part 
of the head of a less pure white, and the brown streaks 
on the front spreading more over the crown ; the throat 
and upper part of the breast are also dashed with large 
blotches of a pale brown, and the bar passing through 
the eye, not of so dark a brown. The toes of both are 
exceedingly strong and warty, and the hind claw a full 
inch and a quarter in diameter. The feathers on the 
neck and hind head are long and narrow, and generally 
erected when the bird is irritated, resembling those of 
the eagle. The eye is destitute of the projecting bone 
common to most of the falcon tribe ; the nostril large, 
and of a curving triangular shape. On dissection, the 
two glands on the rump, which supply the bird with 
oil for lubricating its feathers to protect them from the 
