Plate CCCCXXII. Fig. 1. Old Male. Fig. 2. Young, first
winter.
Plate CLXVI. Male. Middle age.
Tarsi feathered in their whole length. Adult male with the general
colour of the plumage blackish-brown; the forehead and a large patch
on the hind neck white, streaked with blackish-brown; all the feathers
of the back, the scapulars, the wing-coverts, the quills, and the
tail-feathers, white toward the base, and more or less barred with
whitish-grey, or brown; axillar feathers, some of those on the sides,
and some of the tibial feathers, with the lower tail-coverts similarly
marked; the white forming a conspicuous patch on the under surface of
the wing, occupying the greater part of the primaries as well as part
of the inner webs of the secondaries; tail brownish-black, barred with
greyish-white, there being six black bands on the middle feathers, the
last very broad. Female of a uniform dark chocolate-brown, the tail
banded, and the same parts white as in the male. Young with the head
and neck streaked with umber-brown, and yellowish-white; back
umber-brown, variegated with light reddish-brown and yellowish-white;
quills dark brown towards the end, the outer webs of the first tinged
with grey, the base of all white, that colour extending farther on the
secondaries, of most of which, and of some of the primaries, the inner
web is irregularly barred with brown; tail white at the base, brown
toward the end, with a broad subterminal bar of brownish-black, the
tips brownish-white; middle and hind part of the breast, with the
sides, brownish-black, the rest of the lower parts pale yellowish-red,
streaked or barred with dusky.
_Male_, 21-1/2, 51-1/2. _Female_, 23.
From Maryland northward. Columbia River. Not met with in the interior.
Migratory. Not very abundant.
Black Hawk, Falco niger, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. vi. p. 82. Adult.
Falco lagopus, Bonap. Syn. p. 32. Young.
Falco Sanci-Johannis, Bonap. Syn. p. 32. Adult.
Buteo lagopus, Rough-legged Buzzard, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor.
Amer. v. ii. p. 52.
Rough-legged Falcon, Falco lagopus, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. iv. p.
59, Young; v. v. p. 216, Adult and Young.
GENUS III. AQUILA, Briss. EAGLE.
Bill rather short, deep, compressed; upper mandible with the dorsal
outline nearly straight and sloping at the base, beyond the cere
decurved, the sides sloping and slightly convex, the edges nearly
straight, with a slight convexity and a shallow sinus close to the
strong subtrigonal tip; lower mandible with the dorsal outline convex,
the tip obliquely truncate. Head large, roundish, flattened above.
Nostrils oval, oblique, nearer the ridge than the margin. Neck rather
short. Body very large. Feet rather short, very robust; tarsi
roundish, feathered to the toes; which are rather short, united at the
base by short webs, covered above with a series of angular scales, and
towards the end with a few large scutella; claws long, curved,
rounded, flat beneath, acuminate. Plumage compact, imbricated, glossy;
feathers of the head and neck narrow and pointed; space between the
bill and eye covered with small bristle-pointed feathers disposed in a
radiating manner. Wings long, the fourth quill longest; the first
short; the outer six abruptly cut out on the inner web. Tail rather
long, ample, rounded.