FAMILY FALCONIDAE 259 



Family FALCONIDAE: Falcons, Forest-Falcons, and Caracaras; 

 Halcones, Halcones del Monte, y Caranchos 



Members of this family are found throughout the world with 

 the exception of the Antarctic Continent, as residents, or on oceanic 

 islands as birds of passage during migration. The true falcons 

 take living prey regardless of the rapidity through which bird 

 or mammal may attempt escape, and because of their skill the larger 

 species have been trained by man as hunters for hundreds of years. 

 Other kinds, more secretive, but skilled in their hunting, are in- 

 habitants of the forest, where they watch from lookout stations 

 and kill when hungry; or skulk low in undergrowth, with equal 

 success in the capture of living prey. A few descend to any flesh 

 living or dead, and so are scavengers ; fewer still are insect eaters. 



Representatives of all these types are found among the 12 species 

 recorded from the Republic of Panama, one of the hunters being 

 especially active in the capture of snakes. 



KEY TO SPECIES OF FALCONIDAE 



1. Exige of maxilla straight or slightly sinuated, never with a sharp projecting 



angle or toothlike process 2 



Maxilla with a distinct sharp, toothlike process near tip; mandible notched 

 to receive this (genus Falco) 8 



2. Head with a distinct crest 3 



Head not crested 4 



3. Breast and tibia white or buffy white ; crest short and bushy. 



Laughing falcon, Herpetotheres cachinnans, p. 260 

 Breast and tibia black, or dark brown more or less streaked. 



Caracara, Caracara plancus, p. 271 



4. Wing tip longer; longest primaries more than 70 mm. longer than 



secondaries 5 



Wing tip rounded; longest primaries exceeding secondaries by less than 

 40 mm. (genus Micrastur) 6 



5. Head fully feathered except on lores and eyelids; lower surface mainly 



buff Yellow-headed caracara, Milvago chimachima cordatus, p. 274 



Throat and sides of head with feathering scanty or absent; bare skin red 

 in life ; plumage black, with white abdomen. 



Red-throated caracara, Daptrius americanus americanus, p. 276 



6. Smaller ; wing not more than 180 mm. 



Barred forest-falcon, Micrastur ruficollis interstes, p. 268 

 Larger ; wing more than 200 mm 7 



7. Wing less than 240 mm. ; tail definitely shorter than wing. 



Slaty-backed forest-falcon, Micrastur mirandollei, p. 264 



Wing more than 250 mm. ; tail equal to wing, or longer 



Collared forest-falcon, Micrastur semitorquatus naso, p. 266 



