654 S YSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTORES — A CCIPITRES. 



great streugth and less than average size, though very active, generally of lithe and grace- 

 ful shape, with long thin wings and often forked tail. They are "ignoble" birds, subsisting 

 upon small game, especially insects and reptiles. In Pernis apiwrus, the Bee-eating Hawk 

 of Europe, the whole head is densely and softly feathered to the bill. The group is less homo- 

 geneous than the others here presented, and might be dismembered, or merged in Buteonince. 

 The genera assigned differ with nearly every writer who recognizes the group. The type is 

 Milvus, near which stands our Elandides (fig. 448), and with which it may not be improper 

 to associate Elanus, Idinia, and Bontrhamus. 



Analysis of Genera. 



Tail nearly as long as the wings, deeply forked ; head closely feathered Elandides 



Tail short, nearly or about even. 



Five outer primaries emarginate on inner webs ; bill and claws extremely slender Rostrhanius 



Two outer primaries emarginate ; tarsus scutellate in front Iitinia 



— entirely reticulate Elanus 



ROSTRHA'MUS. (Lat. rostrum, a beak ; hamus, a hook.) Sickle-billed Kites. Bill 

 extremely long and slender: upper mandible hooked almost into a sickle-shape, the curvature 

 also impressed to some extent upon the under mandible ; cutting edges entirely without tooth 

 or lobe, but simply curved like culmen ; gonys straight. Cere contracted ; nostrils narrowly 

 oval, horizontal. Loral bristles slight. Space between bill and eye nearly naked and colored, 

 as if a continuation of the cere. Wings long; 3d and 4th quills longest ; 5th next; 1st sliorter 

 than 6th ; outer 5 emarginate on inner webs. Tail about half as long as wing, slightly emar- 

 ginate or nearly even. Feet small ; tarsus feathered about ^ way down in front, then scutel- 

 late, for the rest reticulate ; middle toe and claw about as long as tarsus. Inner toe without 

 claw shorter than outer ; inner toe and claw longer than outer ; no evident webbing between 

 toes; soles granular, but little tuberculate. Claws very long and acute, but slender and com- 

 paratively little curved; inner edge of middle one dilated and jagged. A genus marked by ex- 

 treme hooking of the slender bill, otherwise near Elanus; containing two or three species of 

 the warmer parts of America. 



R. socia'bilis. (Lat. sociahilis, sociable, gregarious.) Everglade Kite. Snail Hawk. 

 Adult ^ 9 • General color slate, or blackish-plumbeous, blackening on wings and tail, over- 

 laid on head and neck with a chalky cast. Base of tail, with longer upper coverts and all 

 under coverts white, increasing in extent on tail from middle to lateral feathers ; tail also with 

 a pale gray or whitish terminal zone. Bill and claws black ; base of bill, cere, and feet bright 

 orange, drying dingy yellow; iris red. Length I6.OO-I9.OO; extent about 44.00; wing 13.50- 

 15.50 ; tail 6.50-7.50; bill 0.90-1.00; tarsus 1.75-2.25; middle toe without claw, rather less. 

 Young birds are much varied with brown, yellowish, and white, but the species is unmistak- 

 able in any plumage. Florida, some of the West Indies, Mexico, and S. through most of S. 

 America. Common in the " everglades" of Florida; and resembling the Marsh Hawk in habits ; 

 food largely a kind of snail (Pomus depressus) ; nest in a bush or amidst rank herbage, often 

 over water, built of sticks, leaves, and grasses, a foot or more in diameter by 6 or 8 inches 

 deep, with a shallow cavity ; eggs 2 or 3, greenish-white or whitish, irregularly spotted, 

 scrawled, blotched, or smirched with brown, about 1.72 X 1-45, laid in March and April, 

 rarely late in February. (i2. sociahilis of orig. ed. of Key, p. 211 ; R. s. plumheus of 2d- 

 4th eds. p. 523, by error.) 



ICTI'NIA. (Gr. IktIvos, iktinos, a kite.) Lead Kites. Bill rather small, but robust, 

 very deep and wide for its length; tip of upper mandible much overhanging, its cutting edge 

 very prominently lobed, sometimes almost toothed like a Falcon's, sometimes irregularly 

 sinuate-serrate ; the nick just in front of the lobe usually permitting the median ridge of the 

 palate to be visible from the side ; culmen very strongly arched in nearly a quadrant of a circle ; 

 gonys convex, ascending; cere short; nostrils small, subcircular; loral bristling slight; super- 



