34 s The Hijlory of ANIMALS. 
thofe in the middle, fo that it appears forked : the breaft and belly are variegated, and 
extreamly beautiful j the colours are black and white, and they are difpofed^ in alter¬ 
nate, tranfverfe lines, or oblong fpots, and both are extreamly bright and afoft’v co¬ 
lours i the back is black. b * } 
The eyes are large, and have an extreamly piercing afpedt; their iris is yellow, and 
the pupil black: the beak is of a deep bluifh-black; it is very broad at the bafe* ex¬ 
treamly hooked, and the point or extremity of the upper chap or portion, which hangs 
to a conliderable diftance over the other, is black: the membrane which furrounds the 
bafe is yellow, and fomewhat wrinkled 5 the noftrils are confpicuous on it 5 they are 
oblong, and placed tranfverfely. 
The legs are moderately long, and very robuft j they are feathered down almoft to 
the toes: the feet are yellow, and the toes are very long and large: the claws are 
black, long, and fharp; the leffer wing-feathers are fringed, as it were, with white 
at their edges: the tail is long and broad, and is elegantly variegated with alternate rows 
of grey and black j all the reft of the bird is black. 
This elegant bird is a native of the Eaft Indies ; the forefts in China, and fome parts 
of Tartafy, alfo afford it: we have fomedmes had it brought over alive to us, but 
rarely. Ray mentions one of them kept alive in London ; and I remember to have 
feen one at the late Duke of Richmond's, among his collection of living animals, at 
Goodwood. Ray, in his edition of Willughby’s Ornithology, calls it Falco Indicus 
cirratus. 
Falco cera lutea, dorfo nigricante , ventre rufo. 
The black-bached^ brown-bellied Falco , with a yellow cera . 
This is a large and a very bold bird ; it's fize is about that of the pheafant, but it’s 
wings are fo long* that, when extended to the full, they meafure more than two feet 
and a half. 
The head is fmall, and fomewhat flatted on the crown; the beak is fhort, and fo 
extreamly hooked, that it appears of a kind of femicircular figure: it is of a bluifii 
colour, except toward the upper part, where it becomes whitifh: it’s bafe is covered 
with a yellow membrane, which is tolerably fmooth, and in which the noftrils are 
confpicuous > they are large, oblong, and tranfverfe j the extremity of the upper chap 
falls a great way over the lower, and is very hard, fharp, and black : on each fide 
alfo, at the angle of the beak, there is on the upper chap an appendage or denticle, 
which is received into a hollow in the under one : the opening of the mouth is large; 
the tongue is large, thick, flefliy, and blackifh : the palate alfo is black, and there is 
a hollow formed in it for the reception of the tongue : the tip of the tongue is fome¬ 
what bifid 5 the eyes are large, and their iris is hazel } the eye-lids are black. 
Immediately over the eyes there runs a line of a whitifli-brown, and the reft of 
the head is variegated with black, and a bright chefnut colour; the fcapi of the fea¬ 
thers being all of the former, and their edges of the latter colour : the feathers on the 
neck are of the fame whitifh-brown with thofe which make the two lines over the 
eyes: the back and the upper part of the wings are of a very deep iron grey, ap¬ 
proaching nearly to black, and in fome are abfolutely black : the middle part of the back 
and the largeft of the wing-feathers are the more intenfely black ? the rump and the 
fmaller wing-feathers are more grey : the throat is of a yellowifh-white, and there run 
from the head to this part two oblong, white fpots on each fide, one from the aper¬ 
ture of the mouth, and the other from the hinder part of the head : the lower part 
of the belly is of a reddifh-brown, and all the intermediate part is elegantly varie¬ 
gated j the feathers being black in their middle, and white at the edges : the feathers 
which cover the thighs or upper part of the legs are of a reddifti-brown, fpotted 
with fmall, irregular, and not very numerous fpots of black. 
The 
