152 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 
and tail, more or less barred with dusky, and broad blackish tips 
to the rectrices. The bare red skin of the cheeks and throat 
imparts a vulturine look, belied, however, by the almost gallin- 
aceous feet. It inhabits South America from Ecuador and Guiana 
southwards; but thence the very similar P. cheriway ranges to Florida 
and Lower California, P. /utosus occurring in Guadelupe Island off 
the latter. The Carancho or Caracara, as. P. tharus is called, re- 
sembles in habits the “ Turkey-Buzzards” (Rhinogryphus), with 
which it consorts, though somewhat shy and quarrelsome. Semi- 
eregarious, and audacious if unmolested, it passes the hot hours 
in the shade, and roosts in company at night ; while the powerful 
and graceful flight, with its alternate sailing or flapping move- 
ments, though not rapid, enables it to soar in spirals to a great alti- 
tude. It walks or runs with ease. The far-reaching grating note 
is usually uttered with the head thrown back ; the food of refuse 
and carrion is supplemented by young lambs or alligators, birds, 
frogs, reptiles, land-crabs, worms, and insects. When on a tree, 
bush, or cliff, the large shallow nest, often renewed yearly, is made 
of sticks and hned with grass, leaves, roots, wool, or scraps of any 
sort; but, when on the ground or in swamps, reeds and herbage 
are commonly utilized. The three or four eggs ranging from white 
with red blotches to cinnamon with a few black marks. 
Lbycter, Phalcobaenus, and Senex are kindred Neotropical genera 
of a greenish-black colour, with a variable amount of white on the 
tail, lower parts, and even the wings and nape; the cheeks and 
throat are naked and red in the first, and orange in the second, while 
the cheeks only are yellow in the third. Phaleobaenus has a slight 
crest, P. carunculatus a fleshy orange caruncle at the base of the 
bill, Senex rufous thighs. Jbycter ater occurs in Amazonia, J. 
americanus from Guatemala and Honduras to Brazil, Phaleobaenus 
megalopterus from Chili to West Peru, P. carunculatus in Ecuador 
and New Granada, P. albigularis in Patagonia, while Senex 
australis is the “Johnny Rook” of the Falklands. Close allies 
are Milvago chimachima and IM. chimango, ranging from Panama 
to Paraguay, and from about lat. 20° S. to Tierra del Fuego 
respectively ; the former is brown, with creamy head, neck, tail, 
and under-parts, and rectrices barred with brown; the latter has the 
head rufous and black, the lower surface streaky-looking yellowish- 
brown, the tail greyer. The lores and naked orbits are pinkish. 
These forms are similar in manners to Polyborus, but ALilvago is 
