MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



333 



have changed this opinion, since in his Geographical and Comparative 

 List of the Birds of Europe and the United States (to which paper, by 

 the way, we are indebted for the separation of eight of the American 

 species of raptorial birds previously considered identical with the Euro- 

 pean,* embracing all thus separated up to the present time, except two t) 

 he calls the American fish-hawk Pandion carolinensis, and gives its 

 habitat as " America generally." Other authors have since separated 

 the West Indian and South American as a tbird, the Asiatic as a fourth, 

 and the Australian as still another. The numerous specimens in the 

 Museum show that considerable variation obtains in color, size, and pro- 

 portions among those recognized by authors as belonging to the P. caro- 

 linensis, much greater differences in color — the main ground on which 

 they have been separated from the European — being presented among 

 the Florida specimens alone than obtains in the average between Bra- 

 zilian and New England specimens, or American and European. Gen- 

 erally the feathers of the breast are each centred with a broad longi- 

 tudinal spot or stripe of brown, which spots sometimes cover the greater 

 part of the breast ; but they are often simply narrow lines, and are not 

 unfrequently entirely wanting. Sometimes these spots are uniform dark- 

 brown, at others suffused or broadly margined with ferruginous, and are 

 occasionally altogether of the latter color. In reuniting the American fish- 

 hawk with the osprey of the Old World, I but adopt the view always held 

 by a large number of ornithologists, though by all American authors they 

 have for the last fifteen years been commonly considered as distinct. 



Measurements of Florida Specimens of Pandion haliaetus. 



91. Haliaetus leucocephalus Savigny. White-headed Eagle. 



Falco leucocephalus Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 255, 1788. — Wilson, Am. Orn., 

 IV, 89, pi. xxxvi, 1811. — Audubon, Orn. Biog., I, 58, pi. xxi, 1832; II, 

 160; V, 354, pi. exxvi. 



* Pandion carolinensis from P. haliaetus, Butceles (or Archlbuteo ns now called) Sancti- 

 Johannis from B. lagopus; Buteo Swainsoni from B. vulgaris; Falco anatumfrom F. pere- 

 grinus ; Astur atricapillus from A. palumbarius ,- Strigiceps (Circus as now called) w/i- 

 ginosus from S pygargus (cyaneus auct.); Otus americanvs (or " Wilsonianus ") from 0. 

 vulgaris; Nyctale Richardsoni from N. Tengmalmi ; Strix pratincola from S. jlammea. 



f Aquila chrysaetos, Brachyotus paluslris. 



