184 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Pandion haliaetus, var. carolinensis (Gmel). 



FISH-HAWK ; AMEEICAN OSPREY. 



Falco carolinensis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. p. 263, 1789. — Daud. Tr. Ovn. II, 69, 1800. Pa7i- 

 dion carolineiisis, Bonap. List, pt. iii, 1838 ; Consp. Av. p. 16. — Strickl. Orn. Syn. 

 I, 64, 1855. — AuD. Birds Am. pi. Ixxxi, 1831.— Cass. Birds Cal. & Tex. p. 112, 

 1854. — Brewer, Oology, 1857, p. 53, pi. iii, fig. 33, 34. — Newb. P. R. R. Kept. VI, 

 iv, 75, 1857. — Heerm. VII, 21, 1857. -De Kay, Zool. N. Y. II, 8, pi. vi, fig. 18. — 

 Cass. Birds N. Am. 1858, p. 44. —Coop. & Suck. P. R. R. Rept. XII, ii, 153, 1860. 



— CouEs, Prod. Orn. Ariz. 1866, p. 13. — Gray, Hand List, I, 15, 1869. — Max. Cab. 

 Jonrn. VI, 1858, 11. — Lord, Pr. R. A. I. IV, 1864, 110 (Brit. Columb. ; nesting). 



— Fowler, Am. Nat. II, 1868, 192 (habits). Falco cayennensis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. 

 p. 263, 1789. —Daud. Tr. Orn. II, p. 69, 1800. Falco ainericamis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. 

 p. 257. — Lath. Index Orn. p. 13, 1790 ; Syn. I, 35, 1781 ; Gen. Hist. I, 238, 1821. 



— Daud. Tr. Orn. II, 50. — Shaw, Zool. VII, 88. Aquila americana, Vieill. Ois. 

 Am. Sept. I, pi. iv, 1807. Pandion americanus, Vieill. Gal. Ois. pi. ii, 1825. — 

 ViG. Zool. Journ. I, 336. — Swains. Classif. B. II, 207, 1837. Aquila i^iscatrix, 

 Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. I, pi. iv, 1807. Accipitcr jnscatorius, Catesby, Carolina, I, 

 pi. ii, 1754. A. falco 2}iscator antillarum, Briss. Orn. I, 361, 1760. A. falco jnscator 

 carolinensis, Briss. Orn. I, 362. Pandion lialicetus. Rich. Faun. Bor. Am. II, 20, 

 1831. — Jard. (Wils.) Am. Orn. II, 103, 1832. —James. (Wils.) Am. Orn. I, 38, 

 1831. — AuD. Orn. Biog. I, 415, 1831. —Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. p. 22, 1844. ! Pan- 

 dion fasciatus, Brehm, Allgem. deutscb. Zeitung, II, 1856, 66 (St. Domingo). 



Sp. Char. Adult male (17,227, San Jose, Lower California, December 15, 1859 ; J. 

 Xantus). Upper surface dark vandyke-brown, with a fiiint purplish cast ; quills black. 

 Every feather with a conspicuous, sharply defined terminal crescent of pure white. Tail 

 brownish-drab, narrowly tipped with white, and crossed with seven (one concealed) 

 regular bands of dusky ; inner webs almost wholly white, the Ijlack bands sharply defined 

 and continuous; shafts entirely white. Ground-color of the head, neck, and entire lower 

 parts, pure white ; a broad stripe from the eye back across upper edge of the ear-coverts 

 to the occiput brownish-black ; white head also sparsely streaked with blackish, these 

 streaks suffusing and predominating medially; nape faintly tinged with ochraceous, and 

 sparsely streaked. Breast with large cordate spots of brown, fainter than that of the 

 back, a medial spot on each feather, the shaft black ; rest of lower parts immaculate. 

 Lining of the wing white, strongly tinged with ochraceous ; the brown of the outer sur- 

 face encroaching broadly over the edge. Under primary-coverts with broad transverse 

 spots or bars ; under surface of primaries grayish-white anterior to the emargination 

 irregularly mottled with grayish; axillars immaculate. Wing-formula, 2 = 3,4-1,5. 

 Wing, 20.00; tail, 8.80; culmen, 135; tarsus, 2.15-1.10; middle toe, 1.90; outer, 1.75; 

 inner, 1.40; posterior, 1.15; posterior outer and inner claws of equal length, each 

 measuring 1.20 (chord); middle, 1.15. " Iris yellow ; feet greenish-yellow." 



Adult female (290, S. F. Baird's Collection, Carlisle, Pa., April 17, 1841). Dark 

 brown of the upper surface entirely uniform, there being none of the sharply defined 

 white crescents so conspicuous in the male.^ Tail brOwn to its tip, the dusky bands 



1 McGillivray describes this plumage as that of the young, and states that the sexes are col- 

 ored alike ; but my observations upon freshly killed specimens, as well as skins, induce me to 

 believe that the sexes are differently colored in their adult plumage, as described above, and the 

 young are not ditferent from the adults. I may be mistaken in adopting this view, but a male 

 killed by myself, in the white-bordered plumage, had scarlet irides and other unmistakable char- 

 acteristics of perfect maturity. 



