Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/415

Rh comparatively short ; claws and bill blue-black ; iris of the eye bright amber ; upper part of the head pale ochre, streaked with brown ; back and wings chocolate, each feather edged with bright ferruginous; first four primaries nearly black about the tips, edged externally with silvery in some lights ; rest of the quills dark chocolate ; lower, side, and interior vanes white ; tail-coverts white ; tail rounded, white, with a broad band of dark brown near the end, and tipt with white ; body below, and bi-east, light yellow ochre, blotched and streaked with chocolate. What consti- tutes a characteristic mark of this bird, is a belt or girdle of very dark brown, passing round the belly just below the breast, and reaching under the wings to the rump ; head very broad, and bill uncommonly small, suited to the humility of its prey.

" The female is much darker both above and below, particularly in the belt or girdle, which is nearly black ; the tail-coverts are also spotted with chocolate ; she is also something larger.

" The Black Hawk is twenty-one inches long, and four feet two inches in extent ; bill bluish-black ; cere and sides of the mouth orange-yellow ; feet the same ; eye very large ; iris bright hazel ; cartilage overhanging the eye prominently, of a dull greenish colour; general colour above brown-black, slightly dashed with dirty white ; nape of the neck pure white under the surface ; front white ; whole lower parts black, with slight tinges of brown ; and a few circular touches of the same on the femorals ; legs feathered to the toes, and black, touched with brownish ; the wings reach rather beyond the tip of the tail ; the five first primaries are white on their inner vanes ; tail rounded at the end, deep black, crossed with five narrow bands of pure white, and broadly tipped with dull white ; vent black, spotted with white ; inside vanes of the primaries snowy ; claws black, strong, and sharp ; toes remarkably short."

I have frequently examined the very specimen from which took his figure of the Falco niger, and which is now in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. On comparing it with specimens of the Rough- legged Falcon in its ordinary states, I could discover no essential differences, nor, in fact, any excepting such as have reference to colour, a circumstance or quality which in hawks is known to vary so much in almost every species at different periods of their lives, that it would be useless for me to offer any remarks on the subject. Besides this, Wilson's figure is by no means correct as to colouring, it being in fact black, in contradiction to his description. I