33® The Hijiory of ANIMALS. 
robuft •, the bafe is convex, and the point of the upper part is very hooked and fharp, 
and hangs a good way over the lower j it is of a bluifh-black colour, and fpotted with 
a darker hue; there is a hollow or channel along the top of the under part, which 
receives on each fide the ridge of the upper : the extremity is very fharp, and the 
bafe is covered with a cera, or membrane of a variegated blue or whitifh colour, and 
in this the noftrils are vifible, opening in a tranfverfe direction : the cera runs up very 
high in this lpecies, and the face is bald almoft up to the eyes: the opening of the 
mouth is wide, and the palate and tongue are fiefh-coloured; the fize of the bird is 
that of a> large dunghil cock j the colour is a dufky chefnut-brown, with a few 
whitifh fpots, and in fome with fcarce any ; the tail is long, and is beautifully varie¬ 
gated with a tranfverfe, annular mark of white : the legs are robuft and yellow ; 
they are feathered down below the joint, but not quite to the toes : the feet are yellow, 
and the claws are remarkably large and ftrong. 
This fpecies is frequent in fome of the large forefts in Germany; we have had one 
of them lately fhewn alive in London. Willughby and Ray call it Chryfeatos cauda 
annulo albo cindta. 
Falco pedibus ceraque cceruleis^ cor pore fupra fufco , 
capita albo . 
The Falco , with the cera and the legs blutjh , the 
head white , and the body brown . 
MU) 
26tt55aro. 
This is a bird of that fize and figure, that Aldrovand, and many of the other wri¬ 
ters on birds, have ranked it among the eagles. It is of the fize of a large cock ; it’s 
weight is between three and four pounds: the head is large and white, whence it has 
obtained the name of bald, as at a diftance it appears as if there were no feathers 
on it; but it is as thick fet as any other part with them, only that this fingularity of 
colour gives fo odd an appearance : the beak is large and ftrong, and is very crooked ; 
the colour is a deep bluifh-black, and the extremity is hooked, and very fharp : the 
bafe of it is covered with a membrane which is of a bluifh colour, and in which the 
noftrils are vifible ; they are oblong and oblique : the angle of the lower jaw is rounds 
ed ; the tongue is broad, foft, and rounded at the extremity : the eyes are large and 
very bright; the iris is yellow, and the pupil black 5 there are upper as well as lower 
eye-lids to the eyes, but the lower are much the larger : the eyes are not funk in un¬ 
der a kind of prominent eye-brows, as in the eagle, but they are prominent. 
The back and wings are of a deep dufky colour, between ferrugineous and black; 
the breaft: and belly are white : the legs are long and robuft, and are covered with 
fhort and foft feathers: the feathers of the wings are very large, and they are pointed 
at the extremities; the largeft of them are the darkeft-coloured, and the interior edges 
of them all are variegated with white and brown : the feathers under the fcapuke are 
white, but they have fpots of a ferrugineous black toward their tops. The third and 
fourth order of thofe which cover the roots of the large wing-feathers underneath are 
beautifully variegated with fpots of a ferrugineous colour, and a;e brown at the edges; 
over thefe there ftand other fmali white ones, and over thefe larger brown ones: the 
tail confifts of twelve feathers, nearly equal in fize, and variegated at the edges with 
white and brown. 
The legs are long and robuft; the feet are of a bluifti colour, and very ftrong 5 
the toes are thick, and the middle one is longeft; the outer one of the three anterior 
is a little longer than the inner, and the hinder toe is much fmaller than any of the 
others: the claws are black ; they are very large, of a femicircular figure, and /harp ; 
the feet are fquammofe or fcaly, and their under part is fcabrous, or furnifhed with 
little pundtules, by means of which it is enabled to hold any thing the more firmly. 
The heart is large; the liver alfo is large, and the gall-bladder proportioned to it % 
the fpleen is round, and of a blackifh colour, and the ftomach is large and robuft: 
the inieftines are long and flender, and are very much convoluted. 
It is a native of England, and of moft parts of Europe ; it lives principally in damp 
places, among the reeds and fedge by the fides of rivers and large ponds, and by the 
fea ; it builds on the ground, among the tall graftes and flags, and lays three or four 
large eggs of an elliptic figure, and altogether white in colour. It feeds on fifh : this 
is a very lingular circumftance, as it feems by no means qualified by nature for catch¬ 
ing 
