CUCKOO FALCON. 



Aviceda euculoideS) SWAINS. 

 PLATE I. 



Above cinereous, with the back and scapulars brown ; the 

 throat and breast pale cinereous ; body whitish, crossed by 

 broad brown bars ; vent and under tail-covers fulvous, im- 

 maculate ; tail even, cinereous, with a broad terminal bar. 



THE true Falcons are well known to have but a single 

 tooth in the upper mandible of their bill, which, 

 with their long and pointed wings, readily distin- 

 guishes them from all others. There is, however, 

 in tropical America, another race, forming the genus 

 Harpagus, which is characterised by the upper 

 mandible having two distinct teeth, like projections 

 on each side, and possessing shorter and more 

 rounded wings : these two groups follow each other 

 in the natural series, for they are connected by the 

 Harpagus coerulescens, one of those aberrant species 

 which is essential to every natural group or sub- 

 genus, in order to unite it with that which follows. 

 These being the two most typical genera, we next 

 have the crested form, after which, as we conjecture, 

 comes the beautiful Falcon here described and figured, 

 we believe, for the first time. It is such a perfect 



