650 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTORES — A CCIPITRES. 



Old World Vultures form a group somewhat apart from the rest in many points of super- 

 ficial structure and habits, though so cdosely correspondent with ordinary Falconidce, and espe- 

 cially witli Buteonince, in all essential respects, that they can form at m(jst a subfiimily Vulturince 

 (fig. 445). They have nothing to do with American Vultures (suborder Cathartides), with 

 which they used to be wrongly united in a family Vulturidce. They are a small group of some 



— ^ — ^ 9 genera and about 20 spe- 



cies, mainly subsisting upon 

 carrion ; the most decidedly 

 raptorial is the Bearded Grif- 

 fin, Gypa'etus barbatus ; 

 other characteristically " vul- 

 turine" forms heing Vultur 

 nionachus, Pseudogyps ben- 

 galensis, Otogyjis auricularis, 

 Lophogyps occipitalis, Gyps 

 fulvus, Gypiscus pileatus, 

 Neophron percnopterus, and 

 Gypohierax angolensis ; of 

 these, some authors make the 

 genera Gypa'etus and Gypo- 

 liierax, respectively, types of 

 two other subfamilies, Gypae- 

 tince and GypohieracincB. 



The South American 

 genera, Micrastur and Her- 

 2)etotheres, are each described 

 as being so peculiar as to 

 form a group of supergeneric 

 value, comparable with those 

 termed subfamiUes in the present work. Their rehitionships are with Falconince (Ridgway). 

 But Sundevall associates Spilornis with Herp)etotherincEj and places Micrastur among the 

 numerous genera of his Asturincs. 



The foregoing are the principal if not the only supergeneric types of Falconidce which have 

 no representatives in our country. 



The North American Falconidce fall in several groups, which I shall call subfamilies, with- 

 out insisting upon their taxonomic rank, or raising the question whether the family at large is 

 divisible in this manner. These groups are six in number : 1. C(Vcm«, Harriers ; 2. Milvince, 

 Kites ; 3. Accipitrince, Hawks ; 4. Fcdconince, Falcons ; 5. Polyborince, Caracaras ; 6. Bu- 

 teonince, Buzzards and Eagles. If it be urged that these groups grade into one another, it may 

 he replied that most large groups of like grade in ornithology do the same ; and that '' typical " 

 or central genera of each of them offer practical distinctions which have been recognized from 

 time out of mind, in popular opinion and vernacular language, as well as by the consensus of 

 most ornithological experts. The A. 0. U., however, recognizes only two subfamilies — Fal- 

 conince for the Falcons proper, and Accipitrince for all the rest, except the genus Pandion, 

 made a third subfamily of Falconidce, instead of a separate family. There is much to be said 

 in favor of this conservatism. 



In my 1884 revision of North American Falconidce, made to check and amplify the descrip- 

 tions in the original edition of this work, an interesting relation between shape of wings and 

 their pattern of coloration presented itself, (a) If we take a " noble" Falcon, such as a Peregrine 

 or a Lanner, we find a strong, yet sharp wing, with the 2d primary longest, supported nearly to 



Fio. 445. — The Vulture's BaiiqiK r iliu'.ti itiiig subfimily Vulturince of 

 family Falconidce, not represented iu Amerjca (.From Michelet.) 



