304 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



good lookout to prevent tlie leather being torn from the rigging, and the meat or 

 game from the stern. These birds are very misehievous and inquisitive; they will 

 piek up almost aiiytliing from the ground ; a large, black glazed hat was carried 

 nearly a milo, as was a jiair of the heavy balls used in catching cattle. ^Ir. I'shorno 

 c.\|)crienced during the survey a more severe loss in their stealing a small Kater's 

 compass in a red morocco leather case, which was never recovered. These birds are, 

 moreover, ([uarreisome an<l very ]>assionate, tearing uj> the grass with their bills from 

 rage. They arc not truly gregarious; they do not soar, and their flight is heavy and 

 clumsy; on the ground they run extremely fast, very much like jiheasants. ... It is 

 a curious circumstance that when crying out they throw their heads uj)wards and 

 backwarils, after the same manner as the carrancha." 



The sjiecies of lbi/ft<-r, two in number, are inhabitants of the heavily wooded 

 country of trojiical South America ; the smaller species, Ibycter ater, apparently not 

 extendiu',; north of Panama, while If»/cter anierlvniifl, a]>|>roaclniig the caracara in 

 dimensions, is found in (Guatemala and Honduras as well. Tiie jilumage in both 

 species is simple black ami white, the black with greenish reflections. In ater, this 

 incluiles the entire ]ilumage except a white band at the base of the tail. In americana 

 the colors are •"black with steel green reflections, the abdomen, thighs, and under 

 tail-coverts white; throat and bare si)ace before the eye, deep red; cere, blue; 

 raanilibles, yellow; iris, deej) red." These birds keep by preference to the trees, and 

 are said to feed largely on insects instead of carrion. 



The hawks, Accipitrime, might l)e deHne<l as those Falconida?, cxcejit true falcons, 

 not already described, and differing from liie true falcons in not having a toothed or 

 notched bill. Or, we might say that they were very much like the harriers, Circina;, 

 as to bill, body, tail, and i>crlia])s legs; but with very different wings. But, to be 

 more exjilicit, the birds which we group here under the name Accipitriiuo', agree with 

 the harriers in the slender form, weak and un-toothed bill, long tail and legs, tarsus 

 about the same length as the tibia, and superciliary shield ])roininent. The absence of 

 the facial 'ruff would at once separate them from the Circina', but an ccpially imj)or- 

 tant difference, not only from the harriers but from the falcons and buzzards, is seen 

 in the wings, which instead of being long, straight, and ta)iering, as in the harriers 

 and falcons, or liroad. Hat, and obtuse as in the buzzards, are short and ratlier rounded, 

 but very concave beneath, so that their flight is ra])id and almost 'whirring,' without 

 the power of lofty soaring or of long continued and easy gliding. The cutting edge 

 of the bill is also usually furnished with a prominent lobe or ' festoon ;' the middle 

 toe is often very long, the '])ads' under the joints on all the toes very strongly de- 

 veloped ; and the tarsal envelope very various, usually more or less feathered, and the 

 bare part scutellate in front or behiiid or both, sometimes with the plates fused to- 

 gether to form a 'booted ' tarsus (as in the true thrushes), or even in some cases par- 

 tially reticulate. 



• The hawks, while numerous individually and even sjiecifieally (there are sixty or 

 seventy species), are all contained in a very few geiu'rn, jirobably nine tenths of them 

 in the genera ^Istur (goshawks), and Accipiter (sparrow-hawks). The distinctions 

 between these two groups, moreover, are very slight, so slight indeed that there are 

 very many s])ecies M'hieh to ordinary eyes seem to have as good a right imder one 

 name as the other. In general, ^Lstur contains the larger and especially the stouter 

 forms, in which the tarsus is more extensively feathered. There are, moreover, other 

 points, such as the condition of the tarsal envelo])e, which should be taken into ac- 



