640 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTORES — A CCIPITRES. 



the throat, neck all around, and more or less of fore back and breast whitish, spotted and chiefly 

 barred with bhickish ; upper aud under tail-coverts and most of the tail white, the latter very 

 numerously barred with blackish, of which color is the broad terminal zone ; the shafts white 

 along the white portion of each feather. Basal portion of primaries likewise barred witli 

 wliitish. IJill variously pale colored ; cere carmine ; iris brown ; feet yellow ; claws black ; 

 soft parts drying to a dingy indefinable color. Young similar, but rather brownish, the mark- 

 ings of the body in lengthwise streaks, not ero^s-bars ; tail, however, barred. Length (either 

 sex) 21.00-23.00; extent about 48.0U; wing 14.50-10.50; tail 8.00-10.00; tarsus about 3.60; 



■efi— . 



Fig. 379. — The Caracara, \ nat. size. (From Brehm.) 



middle toe without claw 2.00. I describe the N. Am. bird, which is much less extensively 

 barred than that of S. Am. (See Cassin, Pr. Phila. Acad., 1865, p. 2.) The difi"erence in 

 several specimens handled is striking, nearly the whole body, wings, and tail of the S. Am. bird 

 being multitudinously rayed across, while in Texas and Florida specimens the body and wing- 

 coverts are mostly uniform, the barring being restricted to the neck and fore half of the body, 

 and to the primaries and tail-feathers. If I have compared age for age, the bird is ci^rtainly 

 difierent. P. lutosus is barred throughout, and otherwise different again. S. border of U. S., 

 Florida to L. Cala. and southward, common, in some places abundant, gregarious like ;■. 

 turkey- buzzard where offal is exposed. Nests bulky, in trees and bushes, of sticks • m' 



