WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 233 



turous journey must have been performed. For, even admitting several 

 centres of creation, we cannot believe that Nature,* who, notwithstand- 

 ing her luxuriant abundance, evidently accomplishes all her ends with 

 the greatest economy of means, has ever placed, aboriginally, in differ- 

 ent parts of the globe, individuals of the same species ; but has always 

 given to each the power of extending its range, according to volition, 

 in any direction where it should find climate, food, or other circum- 

 stances most appropriate. 



The White-tailed Hawk is one of those anomalous species, which con- 

 nect the generally received divisions of the great genus Falco. It par- 

 ticipates in the form and habits of the Kites [Milvus), while in its other 

 relations it approaches the true Falcons [Falco], and at the same time 

 presents traits peculiar to itself. Savigny has therefore very properly 

 considered its near relative, the Black-winged, as the type of a peculiar 

 group, which he elevates to the rank of a genus, but which we for the 

 present shall adopt as a subgenus only. Subsequent observations have 

 confirmed Le Vaillant's opinion, that the Swallow-tailed Hawk {Falco 

 furcatits) is closely related to it ; and associated with a few other 

 recently discovered species, they have been considered as a distinct 

 group under Savigny's name of Elanus. Vieillot adopted the group as 

 a genus, but, for what reason we know not, has since changed the name 

 to Elanoides. The Hawks of this group are readily distinguished from 

 all others, by the superior length of the second primary of their elon- 

 gated wings, by their bill rounded above, curved from the base, and not 

 toothed, their hirsute cere, thick, short, and wholly reticulated tarsi, half 

 feathered before ; toes entirely separated, and powerful nails. The 

 head is flattened above, the gape wide, and the eyes large, deep sunk, 

 and with the orbits greatly projecting above. The colors are also similar 

 in the difterent species, being white, or pale (bluish-white, <fec.), with 

 more or less of black. The comparatively even tail of the two allied 

 species of which we are treating, eminently distinguishes them from the 

 others of the subgenus, which have the tail exceedingly forked. They 

 are remarkable also for another characteristic, that of having the nails 

 rounded beneath, and not canaliculate, a circumstance that occurs 

 besides only in the subgenus Pandion.f This character, which we for- 

 merly attributed to all the Elani, and which we believe we first observed 

 not to exist in the fork-tailed species, has induced Mr. Vigors, the 

 English ornithologist, to separate the latter as a new genus, under the 

 name of Nauclerus. 



* The word nature being taken in so many different acceptations, we think proper 

 to state, that with Ranzani, we mean by it "the aggregate of all created beings, 

 and of the laws imposed on them by the Supreme Creator." 



f In Pandion, however, it is the middle nail that is rounded, in this species it is 

 the lateral and posterior only. 



