THE BUZZARD-EAGLES. 153 



long typically to the Eagles. The connection between them 

 and the Buzzards is very close, while by way of the Kites they 

 also approach the Falcons. 



Among the Eagles are to be found the largest of the Birds 

 of Prey, such as the Lsemmergeier, or " Bearded Vulture " as 

 it is often called, a bird which, though structurally an Eagle, 

 much resembles the Scavenger Vultures in many of its habits. 

 It resembles the latter in being bare-footed, whereas all the 

 species of the true Aquila and its allied genera have feathered 

 tarsi. In this feathered group are included all the beautiful 

 Crested Eagles (Spizaetus) and the Hawk-Eagles (Eutolmaetus\ 

 as well as the curious Egg-devourer (Neopus). 



The bare-footed section comprises all the Sea-Eagles (Haliae- 

 tus] and the Snake-Eagles ( Circaetus\ besides a number of tro- 

 pical forms, such as Haliastur, which is half a Kite and half a 

 Sea-Eagle, and connects the latter with the true Kites. 



THE BUZZARD-EAGLES. GENUS ARCHIBUTEO. 



ArchibuteO) Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1269. 



Type, A. lagopus (J. F. Gmelin). 



These birds have always been considered to be true Buzzards, 

 and have generally been placed by ornithologists either in the 

 genus Buteo or in close proximity, but the reticulation of the 

 tarsi shows that they really belong to the Aquilincz. In writing 

 the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," I made the 

 curious mistake of figuring the tarsus of Archibuteo to show 

 that it was reticulated behind, and then placed the genus 

 among the Buzzards, thus stultifying the arrangement I had 

 been at great pains to emphasise just one of those annoying 

 faux pas which one makes sometimes without any apparent 

 reason. Mr. Seebohm discovered my mistake and went so far 

 as to put the Rough-legged Buzzards into the genus Aquila, 

 because Dr. Gadow had found resemblances in the anatomy of 

 the above-mentioned species and the Spotted Eagle. To put 

 these two birds into the same genus is, however, more than Dr. 

 Gadow ever intended, and although the Buzzard-Eagles bear a 

 very close resemblance to the True Eagles, the nostril is not ex- 

 posed as in the latter birds, and is, moreover, vertical, with an 



