ACC1PITRES. 11 



CHAPTER II. 



The Order ACCIPITRES. 

 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 



(Serpentariida, Cathartidee, Vulturidos, Falconidce, 

 Pandionidce.) 



In 1874 Dr. Sharpe put the total number of existing 

 species of Diurnal Birds of Prey at 377, but, according to 

 the present List, it is now 470, of which at least 89 are only 

 subspecies. These subspecies are indented and have their 

 names printed in smaller type in my List, but the line 

 between a species and a subspecies is very arbitrary. My 

 father adopted five families, of which the fourth and largest 

 was the Falconidce, and this contained all the order except 

 the Secretary Bird, the Osprey, and the tribe of Vultures, of 

 which I shall have more to say later on. 



The great family of the Falconidce he split up into 13 

 subfamilies, and most of these into several genera ; but the 

 Gypaetinee, the Gyjjohieracince, the Gymnogenince, and Circince 

 were only used by him for the reception of one genus each. 

 The Accipitrin<B , or subfamily of Sparrow-Hawks, he made 

 into 17 genera and 2 subgenera, one of them alone — 

 Accipiter — containing no less than 27 species. Of the great 

 subfamily of Buzzards he made 15 genera, one of them — the 

 typical Buteo — with 30 species. 



Eighty genera were recognized in 1874 in the ' B. M. 

 Catalogue of Birds/ a hundred and one by my father in his 

 'List* ten years later; but thirty-six of these contain 

 only one species apiece, and one of them, Onychotes, was 

 afterwards merged in Buteo. 



My father admitted some genera to which universal 

 acquiescence would hardly be expected (e. g. dividing the 

 Polyborince into six), and to a good many he assigned only 



