BROWN BEE-HAWK. 257 



dark bands are reduced to two, and gradually approximate 

 inwards. The tail-feathers have the tips brownish- white ; 

 then a broad band of brownish-black, and a dusky space with 

 seven indistinct darker bands, betw^een which and the base are 

 three large blackish bands. Upper tail-coverts light umber. 

 The throat is light reddish-brown ; the rest of the lower parts 

 umber, each feather with the shaft and a portion near it dusky. 

 The feathers of the legs are lighter, as are the lower tail-coverts, 

 which have two bands of white toward the base. The con- 

 cealed and downy jDarts of the plumage are white, which ap- 

 pears on the hind-neck and head when the feathers are raised, 

 as it extends over more than half their length. The lower 

 wing-coverts umber-brown. 



The digestive organs are in all respects similar to those of 

 the Common Buzzard. The oesophagus is six inches long, its 

 width at the upper part one inch. The crop is very large, its 

 width being two inches ; the proventricular belt three fourths 

 of an inch in breadth. The stomach is large, roundish, an 

 inch and a half in diameter ; its muscular coat very thin, and 

 disposed in fasciculi ; the tendons rather large and roundish. 

 The intestine twenty-two inches long, its diameter from five- 

 twelfths to two-twelfths ; the duodenum only three inches and 

 a half in length. The cloaca is elliptical, two inches long. 

 There are no coeca. The crop contained four pieces of meat, 

 which had apparently been cut with a knife ; and the sto- 

 mach was filled with fragments of bees and numerous larvae, 

 among M'hich no honey or wax was found. 



The soles were crusted with mud or earth ; the claws very 

 slightly blunted. 



Length to end of tail 24 j inches ; extent of wings 52 ; wing 

 from flexure 16f ; tail 111 ; bill along the ridge l^^^, along 

 the edge of lower mandible also l^i ; tarsus 1^^ ; first toe ^|, 

 its claw 1 ; second toe 1^%, its claw 1 ; third toe 1^%^ its 

 claw 1/g ; fourth toe Ij-^, its claw j%. 



That this individual was not a young bird of the season 

 is evident, not from the firmness of its plumage but from the tex- 

 ture of its bones, as well as the period at which it was procured. 

 Yet if we compare the Bee-Hawk with the Kite, we shall 



VOL. III. B 



