ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 169 



The generic or subgeneric raptorial forms which are peculiar 

 to America are sarcoramphus, cathartes* ,ictima, morphfius, and 

 polybo7tis : some species of harpya and elanus inhabit Africa, 

 one of them,e^. 7;^eZawop#erM5, occasionally appearing in the south 

 of Europe. A group of owls, named nyctipetes by Mr. Swain- 

 son, is also African, one species only being North Amei-ican, 

 viz., cuniculnria, or the singular burrowing owl of the prairies. 

 With respect to the distribution of species, no American vulture 

 is common to both sides of the Atlantic, and they all belong 

 more properly to the tropical fauna, being (with the exception 

 perhaps of cathartes californianus) merely summer visitors to 

 the north. Indeed, as their food is carrion, their utility in the 

 economy of nature is obviously greatest in the warmer latitudes, 

 where they accordingly abound : none of them go beyond the 

 54th parallel, and they reach that latitude in the interior prai- 

 ries only, where the summer-heat is considerable. One European 

 vulture [fulvus) ascends to the 51st degree of latitude in Silesia, 

 and another {percno2Jfertis) has been occasionally killed in En- 

 gland. Nearly one third of the American falconidce belong also 

 to Europe ; several of them, as may be seen by inspecting the 

 preceding table, range from one end of the New World to the 

 other, and some, a& faico j}eregri7ius,pandion haliceetus,aquila 

 chrysaeta, and circus cyaneus, may be said to be cosmopolites. 

 Three of these widely-spread species are types of three of the 

 five generic groups into which Mr. Swainson divides the family. 

 The common buzzard of the fur-countries is identical with the 

 European one ; but its winter quarters in America are on the 

 coast of the Pacific, hence it has not hitherto been enumerated 

 among the birds of the United States. Elanus dispar so 

 closely resembles melanopterus of Africa and southern Europe, 

 that the Prince of Musignano hesitates to agree with Temminck 

 in pronouncing them to be distinct. On the other hand, the 

 goshawk of the New World, though considered by some orni- 

 thologists as identical with the European one, is judged by 

 Mr. Swainson to be a peculiar species, for which Wilson's ap- 

 pellation of atricajnllus ought to be retained; the differences 

 of their plumage are pointed out in Sir William Jardine's edi- 

 tion of Wilson. In the same work, the nanclerus furcahis is re- 

 corded as having been killed in England. On the authority of 

 the Prince of Musignano, also quoted there, we have considered 

 the accipiter Statdei of Audubon as identical with Cooperii. 

 The owls, as we have already noticed, though much less mi- 



* Cathartes, or neophron percnopterus, of the European fauna, is considered 

 by Mr. Swainson to be only a subgeneric fomi of vultur. 



