845 
This is the smallest species of the vulture known, and its habits agree 
with the rest of the family. Carrion is its delight. These birds are the 
scavengers of the south, and remove on short notice any filth capable of 
being digested by them. They form no nest, breed on the ground, and 
lay two eggs, and the young are fed by regurgitation. No specimen in 
the Museum of the Cleveland Academy of Natural Science. 
Il. Faminty Fatconipa—Vfalcons, Hagles, Hawks, Kites. 
Head and neck usually covered with feathers, supercileary ridges prom- 
inent; bill very strong, curved and sharp; tarsi and toes strong; claws 
large, curved, and very sharp; wings large and well adapted for rapid 
and vigorous flight. Great difference in size, but all are organized to pur- 
sue, capture, and kill living animals. To this family belong the highest 
types of rapacious birds. 
They are divided into noble and ignoble birds of prey, the former have 
the wings painted, the second quill being the longest, and the upper man- 
dible has a tooth or scallop near its point, while the latter have truncated 
wings, the fourth quill being the longest, with several other distinguishing 
characteristics, on which are established subdivisions. The division into 
‘noble and ignoble,” is said to have originated in the practice of falconry 
to which the “noble” were peculiarly adapted, but it is well known that 
many of the “ignoble” were used, and some species by persons in very 
high stations in life only. Hagles for example. 
GENUS Fatco.—Zinn. 
Form, robust and powerful; wings long and pointed, capable of vigorous 
and rapid flight; tail rather long; bill short, upper mandible curved, and 
with a distinct tooth; nostrils circular, with a central tubercle; tarsi short 
and robust, covered with hexagonal or round scales; middle toe long; 
claws large, curved and very sharp. This genus is spread over a consid- 
erable portion of the world. There are three species indigenous to the 
United States, of which the F. nigriceps, and polyagrus belong to the Pa- 
cific coast, and were recently described by Cassin. 
Fatco ANATUM—Bonaparte—THE GREAT-FOOTED HAWK. 
Wilson’s Am. Orn., IX., pl. 76. Audubon’s Birds of Am., Oct. Ed., I, 
pl. 20. 
This hawk has by most writers been considered identical with its Euro- 
