\begin{table}%t3
\caption{\label{Tab:observedMDF}The MDF of the Galactic halo field stars as constructed from the sample of 1638~HES with available spectroscopic follow-up observations, by means of scaling to the full candidate sample of 3439~stars (for details see text).}
\small%\centerline
 {
\begin{tabular}{r|rrrrrrrrrrrrr}
\hline\hline
    \rule{0ex}{2.3ex} [Fe/H] & $-4.50$ & $-4.30$ & $-4.10$ & $-3.90$ & $-3.70$ 
                             & $-3.50$ & $-3.30$ & $-3.10$ & $-2.90$ & $-2.70$ 
                             & $-2.50$ & $-2.30$ & $-2.10$\\
                         $N$ &      0  &      0  &      2  &      0  &      0  
                             &     12  &     45  &     73  &    160  &    198  
                             &    281  &    337  &    399\\
	         \hline
    \rule{0ex}{2.3ex} [Fe/H] & $-1.90$ & $-1.70$ & $-1.50$ & $-1.30$ & $-1.10$ 
                             & $-0.90$ & $-0.70$ & $-0.50$ & $-0.30$ & $-0.10$ 
                             & $+0.10$ & $+0.30$ & $+0.50$\\
                         $N$ &    313  &    231  &    229  &    209  &    308  
                             &    268  &    178  &    109  &     45  &     33  
                             &      3  &      6  &      0 \\
	         \hline
  \end{tabular}}
\medskip
Note that for a proper comparison with the MDFs predicted by theoretical models, or the MDFs of other stellar populations, the selection efficiency of the HES as a function of [Fe/H] and   $(B-V)_0$ must be taken into account (see Table~\ref{Tab:selfrac}). Note also that the HES~sample is increasingly contaminated with thin- and thick-disk stars as [Fe/H] approaches~$0.0$.
\end{table}