164 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 
in Egypt nests have been found upon the ground in marshes; the 
two or three white eggs, laid early in the year, are rarely marked 
with rufous. The representative American species H. leucocepha- 
lus, the Bald Eagle, has the head, neck, rump, and tail white, and 
ranges from the North to California and Mexico. H. leucocoryphus, 
with the middle of the tail and the cheeks white, extends from 
South-East Europe to East Siberia, China, and Burma; 4. lewco- 
gaster, a2 greyer bird with white head, neck, under parts, and-end 
of the tail, occurs from India and China to Australia and the 
Friendly Islands ; HZ vocifer with white head, neck, breast, and tail, 
but chestnut belly, occupies the Ethiopian Region ; H. vociferoides 
of Madagascar is intermediate between the last-named and /. 
leucocoryphus. The river-haunting Polioaétus ichthyaétus, of the 
Indian Region and Celebes, is brown, with grey head and neck, 
white abdomen and tail, the latter broadly tipped with brown ; 
P. plumbeus, of similar range, lacks the white base of the tail. 
The huge nest is placed in a tree and is often lined with green 
leaves, the two or three eggs being white; the note is loud and 
plaintive, and the food consists chiefly of fish. 
Sub-fam. 5. Buteoninae, or Buzzards and Kites.—In this group 
the Rough-legged Buzzards (Archibuteo) are separated from the 
genus Luteo on account of their feathered metatarsi. A. lagopus, 
well-known in Britain from the numbers which frequently appear in 
autumn, 1s alleged to have bred once in Yorkshire, while in Northern 
Europe it is common, extending thence to about the Lena ‘in Asia, 
and migrating in winter to South Europe, Turkestan, and even Natal. 
At the same season a darker sub-species A. sancti yohannis, which 
breeds north of the United States, occurs southwards to Mexico. 
The former bird is cream-coloured, with brown markings pf various 
depth, becoming more streaky below; the tail shews a white base 
and three or four dark cross-bars, of which the sub-terminal is 
very broad. In Scandinavia, when there is a plague of lemmings, 
it is as valuable an ally as the owls; the habits being identical 
with those of Buteo. A. ferrugineus of western North America 
has the upper surface and thighs ferruginous with brown streaks, 
the head, neck, and tail whiter, and the under parts nearly pure 
white. A. hemiptilopus (strophiatus) of Nepal and Tibet is nearly 
uniform brown with a white pectoral band. 
Buteo is a genus of some thirty species, which together in- 
habit nearly the whole globe, except the Australian region ; the 
