FALCONID.E-THE HAWKS — BUTEO. 469 



Sub-Family BUTEONIN.E, The Buzzards. 



Char. General form heavy ; size moderate or large ; wings rather short 

 and broad ; tail moderate! Flight vigorous, Init not swift. 



About twenty-five speeies are known in all countries ; they feed on 

 smaR animals. 



Genus BUTEO, Cuvier. 



Btileo, Cl-vier, Rej^ue Aniiii. I. 1817, 323. 



Gen Char. Bill short, wide at base, not very acute; edges of upper mandible with 

 sli.dit rounded lobes ; nostrils large, ovate; wings with iburth and fiith .pulls usuall)- long- 

 est" .'ivin- them a rounded ibrin ; tail moderate, wide ; tarsi moderate, robust, with trans- 

 verse seak-s beibre and Ijehind, small eireular and he.xagonal scales on sides ; toes moderate 

 or short, claws strong. 



The number of species is stiU undetermined, partly on account of the 

 great variations in their plumage, which seem analogous to those of the 

 wolves and foxes. 



§ 1. Very stout and heavy. Length over twenty inches. First (piill shorter than 

 eighth. (Tails always red in the adults V) " B. borealU et cars.'- (Bryant.) 



Buteo montanus, Nutt.vll. 



THE RED-TAILED HAWK. 



Falco hideo, Richardson and Swainsox, Fauna Bor. Amcr. Birds (in jjart) ; not the Euro- 

 pean Falco buteo, LiNN.EUS. 



Buteo n,li,a,is, AuDUBOS, Oru. Biog. IV. ,'508 ; pi. 372 : oct. ed. I. 



BiUeo moHtam,s, NuTTALL, Man. I. 1840, 112. - Cassin, P. R. Rep. Birds, IX. 2G. -New- 

 berry, VI. iv. 75. - Bairi), X. iii. 12. — Kexxerly, X. iv. 19. - Heermann, X. vi. 

 32. — Cooper and Suckley, XII. iii. Zool. of W. T. 147. 



Buleo Swainsonii, Cassin, Birds of Cal. and Te.xas, I. 98. (Not of Bonaparte, Conip. Li.t, 

 1838, 3.) 



Sp. Char. Above dark umber brown, with jiartially concealed ashy-white and pale 

 fulvous spots and transverse bands, especially on the scapulars an.l shorter quills. Upper 

 tail coverts red,lish-white, with transverse bands of dark brown. Tail above bright rufous, 

 narrowly tipped with wliite, with a subterminal band of black, and a few short, narrow 

 bars across shafts of leathers, sometimes absent. Throat and neck in front dark brown, 

 mixed with white ; abdomen, tiljix-, and iin.ler tail coverts deeply tinge.l with rutous ; the 



