He Hiftory of ANIMALS. 339 
fcarcity of other food, it will eat worms and beetles, and is often feen rooting up the 
dunof oxen, in fearch of the common black beetle. It builds in woods, and lays 
three or four large eggs; thefe are fometimes wholly white, and fometimes they are 
variegated with large red fpots. 
Moft of the naturalifts have defcribed it. Gefner calls it Buteo j Willughby, Buteo 
vulgaris } and Ray, Buteo vulgaris five triorchis. This latter name is borrowed from 
the old authors, who had an opinion, that the buzzard had three tefticles. runy telis 
us, that the Greeks called by this name, and for this reafon, the bird which the Ro¬ 
mans 1 named Buteo 5 but there is no better foundation, than the miftake of feme igno¬ 
rant perfon in the difieciion 01 tne bird, for this opinion » the tcuiv-ies m tins two, 
as in all the others; and they are lb like to thofe of the other birds of prey in their 
figure and fituation, that it is a wonder any thing particular fhould ever have been faid 
about them. 
* 
Falco pedibus feminudis flavis , cera nigra , capite Cce- 
ruleo j caudee fafeia cinerea apice albo. 
*The yellow-legged Falco 3 with a black cera , a blue head\ 
and a variegated tail . 
This is a large fpecies: it is of the fize of a full-grown hen, and of the fhape 
of the former fpecies or common buzzard, except that it is longer, in proportion to 
it’s thicknefs: the beak is large, and fome what long ; it is of a black colour, very 
hooked, fharp at the point, and protuberant between the noftrils and the forehead: 
the cera or membrane at it’s bafe is large, thick, wrinkled, and black; the noftrils 
are very confpicuous in this j they are of a figure not rounded, but fomewhat oblong 
and bent: the opening of the mouth is extreamly wide, and is yeliowifh within j the 
angle of the lower mandible is femicircular : the eyes are large, and have a very fierce 
and piercing afpedt : the iris is of a deep yellow, approaching to orange colour. 
The head is of a grey colour; the crown or top of it is broad, flatted, and grows 
narrow toward the bafe of the beak : the bottoms of the feathers, in the hinder part 
of the head, and on the top of the back, are white : the back is of a dufky brown, 
fomewhat between the ferrugineous and the moufe-colour; and the extremities of the 
long wing-feathers, and of fome of the inveftient ones, are white. 
The wings are not fo long as in fome of the other fpecies; they are, when clofed, 
confiderably fhorter than the tail : there is on each of the wings, and alfo on the 
tail, a broad tranfverfe areola of grey, and over this another, though narrower, of 
black 5 and the tips of the wing-feathers are grey, and of thofe ot the tail white : 
the long wing-feathers are twenty-four in each ; the tail-feathers are twelve 5 they are 
ten or twelve inches long, and are variegated with zones, or broad tranfverfe lines of 
blackiih and white : the extremities are white, and juft at the edge of the white 
part there is a narrow black line, and this is fucceeded by a fpace of three fingers 
breadth, which is grey. 
The throat, and the lower part of the belly, near the origin of the tail, are white 
as fnow, without any variegations: the bread: and belly are white, variegated with 
black fpots. 
The legs are ihort, robuft, and thick; they are feathered below the joint 5 the 
naked part and the feet are yellow 5 the claws are long, black, and very fharp. 
The inteftines in this bird are fhorter, and have fewer convolutions than in the 
others : their appendiculas are but few, thick and fhort: the liver is divided into two 
lobes, and the gall-bladder is remarkably large : the fpleen is oblong, and the tefticles 
are large and oblong. 
This 
