134 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



tate spots, and the wing-linings streaked with ferrugi- 

 nous. Wings white, barred with dusky. " Vent and 

 femorals," as Nuttall says, "pale ochreous." Tail white, 

 softened by the superior color. I do not perceive that 

 the abdomen is barred. 



Bill very blue black, with a short, stout curved tip, 

 — curving from the cere more than a quarter of a cir- 

 cle, extends not quite a quarter of an inch beyond the 

 lower mandible, — and is proportionally stouter at tip 

 than in any of his Falconince, judging from plates of 

 heads ; whole visible, including cere, 1|^ inches long, 

 and 1 inch deep at base ; cere yellowish-green. 



Tarsus and toes very pale yellow ; claws blue-black. 

 As MacGillivray says of Buteo, claws flattened beneath, 

 "that of the middle toe with an inner sharp edge." 

 (He says, as I gather, that all the diurnal birds of prey 

 of Great Britain, i. e. Falconince, have claws either 

 flattened or concave beneath, except Pandlon, the 

 inner edge of the middle one being more or less sharp, 

 but least so in Circus, or harrier.) Tarsus feathered 

 in front one third the way down. The toes for length 

 stand in this order, — the first (or hind), second, 

 fourth, third, the first being the shortest ; for stoutness 

 thus, — one, two, three, four. Claws for stoutness fol- 

 low the same order with the toes. Utmost spread of toes 

 and claws 4| inches. A considerable web between third 

 and fourth toes.^ Toes with papillae not rigid beneath. 



The wing extends nearly two feet from the body, 

 and is 10| inches wide; from flexure is 15| inches. 



1 In thia respect Circus and Falco much the same ; Aquila and 

 Pernis and Milvus have several short webs ; Haliaetus, Pandion, and 

 Acdpiter are free. 



