290 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



were generally succeeded by the ascent of a cloud of birds, or the shrill piping of the 

 squirrel-monkeys ( Callitlirix sciurus), and the exultant scream of the wild huntress 

 from the depths of the forest. Then followed a pause, devoted to domestic duties, 

 during which the thanksgiving duet of the eaglets ascended from the cliffs, and very 

 soon after one or both parents reappeared in the upper air to resume the work of 

 destruction. The callow harpies, with their pendant crops, their misshapen, big heads, 

 and their preposterous claws, resemble embryo demons or infantine chimeras, rather 

 than any creatures of nature ; but they grow very rapidly, and their appetite during 

 the first six months of their existence, is almost insatiable. 



" The Incas and Aztec noblemen trained harpy-eagles like falcons, and preferred 

 them to tame panthers, which were used by pot-hunters to capture deer and young 

 peccaries. Devega, the biographer of Cortez, says that the satrap of a Mexican 

 province presented the Great Captain with a hunting-eagle called El Hidalgo del aire, 

 the prince of the air, whose value was estimated at the price of ten slaves ; and adds, 

 that the only bodily injury which Cortez ever received, during his adventures in Mex- 

 ico, was inflicted by this eagle," which, dying from a wound inflicted by Cortez in a 

 fit of passion, " before he resigned himself to death, raised his head once more, grabbed 

 the first finger of the I'icrht hand of his cruel master, and bit it through, crushed it 



*_? ^j * ^j ' 



completely, ' so as not to leave the world unavenged,' as Devega says." 



The range of this species is from southern Mexico southward over all the tropical 

 forests of America, as far, at least, as Bolivia and southern Brazil. 



Turning now to birds which more nearly conform to our idea of buzzards, we may 

 mention the genus Urubitinga (in which we include Leucopternis), a group peculiar 

 to tropical America, whence about a dozen species are known. They are good-sized 

 buzzards, which at once suggest the Buteones by their size, proportions, and habits. 

 Among them are some very beautiful birds ; for example, U. ghiesbreghti of Mexico, 

 which is snowy white with the exception of wings and tail, which have bold markings 

 of deep black. 'U. anthracina, the anthracite-buzzard of Cuba, Central America, and 

 southward, is the very opposite of this species as regards color, being deep black all 

 over, with the exception of a broad white band across the middle of the tail, and a 

 narrow white edging at its tip. This bird has been taken in Arizona. 



Other American genera, closely allied to the foregoing, but which we have only 

 space to mention, are Asturina, Buteogallus, JButeola, and Busarellus, this last being 

 remarkable for the long-hooked bill, as Avell as for having the soles of the feet thickly 

 studded with rough papilke or spicules in the manner of the osprey, evident adapta- 

 tions for the better catching of fish, which constitute its ordinary food. Gruber's 

 buzzard ( Onychotes gruberi), is interesting, not only for its peculiarities of structure 

 which leave it without near relatives among the buzzards but because only two 

 specimens have ever been discovered, both probably taken in California. " The elon- 

 gated legs, reaching considerably beyond the rather short tail, the close thigh-plumes, 

 the long and extremely acute claws (somewhat like those of Itostrhamus,) with the 

 short, rounded, and very concave wing, are its most striking peculiai'ities." 



The genus Archibuteo, consisting of only two species, resembles the typical buz- 

 zards (Buteo) in nearly all points but one, namely the feathering of the tarsi, for 

 these differ from those of all others of the sub-family, except Aquila, in being densely 

 feathered in front to the very base of the toes ; the hinder aspect of the tarsus, how- 

 ever, is entirely unfeathered. The wings are also proportionally longer than in Buteo,. 

 in this respect also resembling the genus Aquila. Both species are found in North 



