Ti2 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



of Australia and the Moluccas is a smaller bird, but cannot be 

 considered a distinct species, while the American Osprey I 

 consider to be absolutely identical with the ordinary bird of 

 the Old World. 



There is but one genus in the Sub-order, namely the genus 

 Pandion t Savigny, Descr. de PEgypte, p. 272 (1809). 



Type, P. haliaetus (L.). 

 the characters of which have been alluded to above. 



I. THE OSPREY. PANDION HALIAETUS. 



Falco haliaetus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 129 (1766). 



Pandion haliaetus, Macg. Brit. B. iii. p. 239(1840); Newton, 



ed. Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 30 (1871); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. 



Mus. i. p. 449 (1874) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 139, pi. 



387 (1876) ; Seeb. Br. B. i. p. 55 (1883) ; B. O. U. List 



Br. B. p. 105 (1883) ; Saunders, Man. Br. B. p. 347 (1889). 



Adult Male. General colour above dark brown, the feathers 

 with indistinct edges of paler brown ; quills blackish, the 

 primaries uniform whity-brown below, the secondaries whitish 

 on the inner web, and indistinctly barred with ashy-brown:, 

 tail almost uniform brown, the inner webs whitish with obso- ;> 

 lete bars of ashy-brown ; head brown, mottled with white 

 bases to the feathers; from behind the eye a broad white 

 streak, extending down the sides of the neck; the ear-coverts 

 blackish-brown ; sides of neck like the back ; sides of face 

 and under surface of body white, the chin and fore-part of 

 cheeks slightly streaked with dark-brown ; breast with brown 

 centres to the feathers; some of the flank- feathers and the 

 axillaries marked with rufous-brown, like the breast ; bill black, 

 the cere blue ; feet blue ; iris yellow. Total length, 24 inches ; 

 culmen, 175; wing, i9'8; tail, 9-5; tarsus, 2-4. 



Adult Female. Resembles the male in colour. Total length. 

 21 inches; wing, 19-0. 



Young. Chocolate-brown, the feathers plainly edged with 

 buflfy-white, more broadly on the secondaries and upper tail 

 coverts; crown black, with white edges to the feathers, im 

 parting a streaked appearance ; nape white ; tail-feathers brown. 



