180 



BUTEO. BUZZARD. 



This genus is composed of species for the most part of large 

 size, or from fifteen to twenty-five inches in length, and having 

 an obvious aflSnity on the one hand to certain species of the 

 genus Accipiter, and on the other to the smaller Eagles. Be- 

 tween the Buzzards and the latter birds there is in truth no 

 well-marked distinction, and the Rough-legged Falcon, so 

 called, is, I think, exactly intermediate between the two genera. 

 The Buzzards are not remarkable for elegance of form, or for 

 courage and activity. They are generally robust, having the 

 body full and compact, the neck rather short, the head large, 

 roundish, and flattened above. 



The bill shorter than the head, moderately stout, broad at 

 the base, compressed toward the end ; upper mandible with 

 the cere of moderate size, the dorsal line slightly convex and 

 considerably declinate to the edge of the cere, then decurved 

 in the fourth of a circle, the ridge broad and somewhat flattened 

 at the base, narrowed and convex toward the end, the sides 

 rapidly sloping and slightly convex, the edges with a slight 

 sharp-edged rounded festoon, succeeded by a shallow sinus 

 ending in the curve of the tip, which is deflected, trigonal, 

 elightly concave beneath, acute, and at the end nearly perpen- 

 dicular ; lower mandible with the angle of moderate length, 

 wide, the dorsal line slightly convex, the ridge broadly con- 

 vex, the sides rounded, the edges a little inflected, at the end 

 decurved, the tip broad and rounded. 



INIouth wide ; palate flat anteriorly, having a broad soft 

 ridge, from the posterior part of which proceed backwards 

 two very prominent, nearly parallel, soft ridges, bearing small 

 pointed papillfB. Between these ridges is a depression which 

 corresponds to the tongue. A transverse papillate edge pro- 

 ceeds inwards from the middle of these ridges, and they ter- 



