516 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Genus GERANOSPIZA Kaup 



Ischnosceles (not Ischnocelis Burmeister, 1842) Strickland, Ann. Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., xiii, 1844, 409. (Type, by original designation, Falco gracilis 

 Temminck.) 



Ichnosceles (emendation) Kaup, Mus. Senckenb., iii, Heft 3, 1845, 259. 



Ischnoceles (emendation) Wagner (A.), Arch, fiir Naturg., 1846, ii, 169. 



Ischnoscelis (emendation) Katjp, Isis, 1847, 43, 183. 



Ichnoscelis (emendation) Gray, Gen. Birds, i, 1849, 28. 



Ichnoschelis (emendation) Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xxxvii, Doc. 1853, 809. 



Geranospiza Kaup, Isis, 1847, 43, 183, 953. (New name for Ischnosceles Strick- 

 land, preoccupied.) 



Geranospizia (emendation) Kaup, Isis, 1848, 758. 



Geranospizias (emendation) Sundevall, Disp. Met. Av. Tent., 1873, 107. 



Geranopus Kaup, Isis, 1848, 758; 1849, 109. (New name for Geranospiza Kavip.) 



Medium-sized, slender, long-legged Buteonidae (wing about 254-387 

 mm.), with tarsus more than one-fourth as long as wing, transversely 

 scutellate both before and behind; ^^ outer toe conspicuously shorter 

 and smaller than inner toe; tibio tarsal joint flexing both forward and 

 backward," and loral, orbital, and malar regions feathered. 



Bill relatively small, compressed, its width at base of culmen equal 

 to about two-thirds its depth at same point, the latter equal to nearly 

 two-thirds the length (chord) of culmen; the latter much longer than 

 claw of hallux, but much less than one-fourth to less than one-fifth as 

 long as tarsus, gradually and strongly decurved from base, broadly 

 ridged or narrowly rounded, the tip of maxilla produced to form a 

 moderately long unguis ; gonys a little less than half as long as culmen, 

 decidedly convex, ascending terminally, not prominent basally; 

 maxillary tomium distinctly but not conspicuously sinuated, concave 

 immediately behind unguis, convex in middle portion; mandibular 

 tomium convex to near tip, where obtusely toothed at upper angle of 

 the obliquely truncated tip of mandible; rictus on vertical line with or 

 decidedly posterior to anterior angle of eye; cere rather long, its length 

 on top equal to nearly half the length of culmen, slightly arched, flat 

 (transversely) and relatively broad on top, its anterior outline dis- 

 tinctly sinuated (more or less convex in front of nostril, concave and 

 receding below) ; nostril longitudinally or obliquely narrowly elliptical 

 or with upper edge straight and lower edge convex, close to anterior 

 margin of cere. Wing rather long, rounded, the longest primary 

 exceeding distal secondary by a little less to a little more than one- 



58 The scutella of the planta tarsi are, however, often fused into an apparently 

 continuous smooth surface. 



" This character is not, of course, obvious in dried skins; but in freshly killed 

 or alcoholic specimens it is exceedingly evident. The character, which is shared 

 by the related African genus Gymnogenys Lesson, is an adaptive one, enabling 

 the bird to withdraw from their subterranean burrows the frogs, crayfish, etc., 

 which constitute its food. 



