Page:A History of British Birds.djvu/54

 The male is smaller, and does not weigh more than twelve pounds. The bill is of a deep blue colour; the cere vellow: the eyes are large, deep sunk, and covered by a projecting brow; the iris is of a fine bright yellow, and sparkles with uncommon lustre. The general colour is deep brown, mixed with tawny on the head and neck: the quills are chocolate, with white shafts; the tail is black, spotted with ash colour: the legs are yellow, and feathered down to the toes, which are very scaly; the claws are remarkably large; the middle one is two inches in length.

This noble bird is found in various parts of Europe; it abounds most in the warmer regions, and has seldom been met with farther north than the fifty-fifth degree of latitude. It is known to breed in the mountainous parts of Ireland: it lays three, and sometimes four eggs, of which it seldom happens that more than two are prolific. Mr Pennant says there are instances, though rare, of their having bred in Snowdon Hills. Mr Wallis, in his Natural History of Northumberland, says, " it formerly had its aerie on the highest and steepest part of Cheviot. In the beginning of January, 1735, a very large one was shot near Warkworth, which measured, from point to point of its wings, eleven feet and a quarter."