FAMILY ACCIPITRIDAE IJl 



the same tree. Evidently the nesting place was somewhere near. In 

 the hand, I found that both had the neck and back of the head covered 

 with down as usual in this genus. A white band crossed the back of 

 the head, the down above and below this being dull, dark brown. This 

 mark is lost soon, since in older birds, that are obviously immature, as 

 indicated by the soft feathering that remains on the head and neck, the 

 back of the head is uniform in color. 



No records of the eggs of this northern race of the species have 

 come to my attention. 



In Panama it is only an occasional hunter, like Baldomiro Moreno, 

 who recognizes these birds as different, and these few merely know 

 them as another kind of noneca, the name for the red-headed species. 

 In Colombia they are called guala. The typical form is recorded in 

 the lowlands from eastern Mexico, to Honduras and Panama, and 

 across northern Colombia to northwestern Venezuela. Cathartes h. 

 uruhitinga, found from the llanos of eastern Colombia and the lower 

 Orinoco valley in Venezuela south to the southern Chaco in Argentina 

 is larger, with the wing in adult males from 454-493 (474.5), and in 

 adult females 461-501 (484) mm. 



Family ACCIPITRIDAE: Hawks, Eagles, and Allies; Gavilanes, 

 Aguilas, y Especies Afines 



The members of this family, worldwide except in Antarctica in 

 their distribution, are numerous in tropical America, where many live 

 in heavy forests. These species range through the high tree crown, 

 or the intermediate branches below, and seldom descend lower. Other 

 kinds that inhabit more open lands usually secure their food on or 

 near the ground. 



The reputation of the family as predators on domestic fowls comes 

 from those that are hunters of birds and small mammals and that on 

 occasion come to capture chickens. The majority of the hawks found 

 in Panama, however, are harmless, as their food is large insects, crabs, 

 frogs, lizards, snakes, and the mice and rats that abound about culti- 

 vated fields. It is unfortunate that few persons distinguish these from 

 the predatory kinds, so that all are regarded with disfavor and are 

 killed at every opportunity. For this reason, and also through the 

 extensive clearing of forests, most of the family now are rare. Only 

 a few of the forest inhabitants have been able to adapt their lives to 

 the scattered tracts of second growth that now furnish the main 

 forest cover over extensive areas. 



It should be noted that many of the species resident in the Tropics 

 are far more sedentary than their relatives of the temperate zones. 



