164 FALCONIFORMES 



CHAP. 



in Egypt nests have been found upon the ground in marshes ; the 

 two or three white eggs, laid early in the year, are rarely marked 

 with rufous. The representative American species H. leucocepha- 

 lus, the Bald Eagle, has the head, neck, rump, and tail white, and 

 ranges from the North to California and Mexico. H. leucocoryplms, 

 with the middle of the tail and the cheeks white, extends from 

 South-East Europe to East Siberia, China, and Burma ; H. leuco- 

 gaster, a greyer bird with white head, neck, under parts, and end 

 of the tail, occurs from India and China to Australia and the 

 Friendly Islands ; H. vocifer with white head, neck, breast, and tail, 

 but chestnut belly, occupies the Ethiopian Region ; H. vocifero'ides 

 of Madagascar is intermediate between the last-named arid H. 

 leucocoryplius. The river-haunting Polioaetus iclitJiyaetus, of the 

 Indian Eegion and Celebes, is brown, with grey head and neck, 

 white abdomen and tail, the latter broadly tipped with brown ; 

 P. plumbeus, of similar range, lacks the white base of the tail. 

 The huge nest is placed in a tree and is often lined with green 

 leaves, the two or three eggs being white ; the note is loud and 

 plaintive, and the food consists chiefly of fish. 



Sub-fam. 5. Buteoninae, or Buzzards and Kites. In this group 

 the Eough-legged Buzzards (Arcliibuteo) are separated from the 

 genus Buteo on account of their feathered metatarsi. A. lagopus, 

 well-known in Britain from the numbers which frequently appear in 

 autumn, is alleged to have bred once in Yorkshire, while in Northern 

 Europe it is common, extending thence to about the Lena in Asia, 

 and migrating in winter to South Europe, Turkestan, and even Natal. 

 At the same season a darker sub-species A. sancti johannis, which 

 breeds north of the United States, occurs southwards to Mexico. 

 The former bird is cream-coloured, with brown markings of various 

 depth, becoming more streaky below ; the tail shews a white base 

 and three or four dark cross-bars, of which the sub-terminal is 

 very broad. In Scandinavia, when there is a plague of lemmings, 

 it is as valuable an ally as the owls ; the habits being identical 

 with those of Buteo. A. ferrugineus of western North America 

 has the upper surface and thighs ferruginous with brown streaks, 

 the head, neck, and tail whiter, and the under parts nearly pure 

 white. A. hemiptilopus (strophiatus) of Nepal and Tibet is nearly 

 uniform brown with a white pectoral band. 



Buteo is a genus of some thirty species, which together in- 

 habit nearly the whole globe, except the Australian region ; the 



