The Hiftory of ANIMALS, 343 
The legs are long, very robuft and yellow, and the claws are very long, Iharp, 
ftrong, and black : the middle toe is longeft, the inher one the ihorteft, and the outer 
one is connected, for nearly half it’s length, to the middle one by a membrane : the 
opening of the mouth is wide, and the fwallow very large ; the tongue is large, broad, 
flelhy, °and undivided at the extremity, and there is a cavity of the fame dimenfions 
in the palate. 
* 
We have this fpecies in fome of our large woods; I killed two fome years ago in 
Charleton foreft in Suflex : they feed on all kinds of fowls, and on the lefler quadru¬ 
peds j they will feize on young rabbets and hares. It builds in high trees, and lays 
four/or fometimes five, eggs ; they are large and blotted all over, as it were, with a 
dulky purple, the white hardly appearing any where through it. 
The female of this fpecies is what we ilfually meet with, and is the fex defcribed 
here; the male is fmaller, and differs much in colour : the head, neck, and back are 
not of the ferrugineous brown of the female, but of a dufky lead colour, or bluifti- 
grey, fomewhat refembling that of the wild pigeon, only the feathers on the fhould- 
ers, which are confiderably long, have fomething of this ferrugineous brown : the 
breaft is white, but is variegated with a number of tranfverfe lines of brown : the ex¬ 
terior wing-feathers are black, but their tips are grey, and their bottoms white, and 
the exterior covering-feathers of the wings are of a grey, approaching to that of the 
back, only paler; and the firft feries of thofe which cover the under part of the wings 
have fome fpots of brown. 
It is not a wonder that the male in this fpecies, fo very different from the female, 
Ihould have been miftaken for another bird. Aldrovand’s bird of prey, which he de- 
fcribes under the title of Palumbo fimilis, is evidently this; and, indeed, there is an 
appearance of that author’s having made two or three fpecies out of this, from it’s 
differences in age, fex, and other accidents: other authors call this fpecies Pygargus 
Accipiter and Subbuteo, but both thefe names confound it with others birds. We 
have two names for it, as if thofe who gave them had taken the two fexes for two 
diftind fpecies. We call the female the Ringtail , and the male the Hen-harrow. , or 
Hen-harrier . 
Falco dorfo variegato , cauda albo et fufco fafciata. 
The Falco ^ with a variegated back y and a brown 
and white tail . 
This is one of the molt beautiful of the hawk-kind ; it is about the bignefs of a 
tame pigeon : the head is fmall and flatted; the beak is broad at the bafe, but fhort 
and confiderably hooked ; it is very fharp at the point; it is of a dufky bluifh-brown 
colour, except juft at the tip, where it is black : the cera or membrane at the bafe is 
yellow, and fomewhat wrinkled, and the noftrils in it are oblong, and ftaiid obliquely : 
the wings, when expanded, reach to a great breadth, and, when clofed, they extend 
to the tip of the tail. 
The back is of a pale brown colour, variegated in an extreamly elegant manner in 
the fpots of white, and of a gold yellow : the tail is long, and is beautifully fafciated 
with tranfverfe, broad lines of white and brown, placed in an alternate order. 
The legs are long and very robuft, and are of a bright yellow colour : the toes are 
long, and the outer one is conne&ed by a membrane, nearly half way of it’s length 
to the middle one : the claws are black, long, and fharp. 
This fpecies is a native of the Brafils; Marcgrave has defcribed it under the name 
of a Milvus. He gives it’s Brafilian name Caracara, and it’s Portuguefe one, which is 
Gamiron. Willughby and other writers have copied his name, but we have not had 
an opportunity of feeing any fpecimens of the bird in Europe; from which more 
perfect defcriptions might be formed, than that which we at prefent have from Marc¬ 
grave and Pifo. 
Falco 
