I 5 2 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 



and tail, more or less barred with dusky, and broad blackish tips 

 to the rectrices. The bare red skin of the cheeks and throat 

 imparts a vulturine look, belied, however, by the almost gallin- 

 aceous feet. It inhabits South America from Ecuador and Guiana 

 southwards; but thence the very similar P. cheriway ranges to Florida 

 and Lower California, P. lutosus occurring in Guadelupe Island off 

 the latter. The Carancho or Caracara, as P. tliarus is called, re- 

 sembles in habits the " Turkey -Buzzards " (Ehinogryphus), with 

 which it consorts, though somewhat shy and quarrelsome. Semi- 

 gregarious, and audacious if unmolested, it passes the hot hours 

 in the shade, and roosts in company at night ; while the powerful 

 and graceful night, with its alternate sailing or napping move- 

 ments, though not rapid, enables it to soar in spirals to a great alti- 

 tude. It walks or runs with ease. The far-reaching grating note 

 is usually uttered with the head thrown back ; the food of refuse 

 and carrion is supplemented by young lambs or alligators, birds, 

 frogs, reptiles, land-crabs, worms, and insects. When on a tree, 

 bush, or cliff, the large shallow nest,. often renewed yearly, is made 

 of sticks and lined with grass, leaves, roots, wool, or scraps of any 

 sort-; but, when on the ground or in swamps, reeds and herbage 

 are commonly utilized. The three or four eggs range from white 

 with red blotches to cinnamon with a few black marks. 



Ibycter, Phalcolaenus, and Senex are kindred Neotropical genera 

 of a greenish-black colour, with a variable amount of white on the 

 tail, lower parts, and even the wings and nape ; the cheeks and 

 throat are naked and red in the first, and orange in the second, while 

 the cheeks only are yellow in the third. Phalcolaenus has a slight 

 crest, P. carunculatus a fleshy orange caruncle at the base of the 

 bill, Senex rufous thighs. Itycter ater occurs in Amazonia, /. 

 americanus from Guatemala and Honduras to Brazil, Plialcolaenus 

 megalopterus from Chili to West Peru, P. carunculatus in Ecuador 

 and New Granada, P. albigularis in Patagonia, while Senex 

 australis is the " Johnny Eook " of the Falklands. Close allies 

 are Milvago chimachima and M. chimango, ranging from Panama 

 to Paraguay, and from about lat. 20 S. to Tierra del Fuego 

 respectively ; the former is brown, with creamy head, neck, tail, 

 and under-parts, and rectrices barred with brown ; the latter has the 

 head rufous and black, the lower surface streaky-looking yellowish- 

 brown, the tail greyer. The lores and naked orbits are pinkish. 



These forms are similar in manners to Polylorus, but Milvago is 



