KITES. 



299 



hooked bill or the long-clawed feet. It is, therefore, not a little disconcerting to find 

 these rapid and expert flyers preying chiefly on some of the slowest of existing 

 animals, namely, fresh-water snails. In Florida, Mr. Maynard found that their food 

 consisted largely of Pomus depressus, while on the Rio Uruguay I found them eating 

 a species of Ampullaria, and at one time shot a specimen as he circled overhead with 

 a large mollusc of this kind in his claws. Having observed the facts, it is easy to see 

 the adaptation of the long, slender hook with which the bill is provided, as well as the 

 use of the sharp and lengthened but slightly curved claws; while we have an example 

 of the uncertainty which may attend that kind of reasoning from structure to function, 

 which is, unfortunately, too often depended upon. 



* ') 



FIG. 140. Pernis apivorus, bee kite. 



Allied to Rostrhamvs are the species of the American genus, ( //y// />/<#, ^'hich 

 pass through so many changes of plumage, and are so perplexing in their variations 

 that it would seem unwise for any person without scores or even hundreds of speci- 

 mens before him to venture an opinion as to the actual number of species or geo- 

 graphical races. The genus is restricted to tropical America, and one species 

 ennensis, is the largest of the New World kites, approaching the dimensions of Wlvus 

 ictiuKs of Europe. 



The honey-buzzard or bee kite, Pernis apivorus, inhabiting Europe and Africa, and 

 ranging from the Arctic Circle to the Cape of Good Hope, is a bird which has 

 ters allying it both to the buzzards and to the kites, while in many points it differs so 

 decidedly from either that not a few ornithologists make it the type of a distinct sub- 

 family, Perninse. 



