58 PTERYLOGRAPHY. 



only contracted into a band immediately in front of the oil-gland, but even there still broad ; and 

 it consists exclusively of scattered feathers, which become stronger posteriorly. To these differences 

 we may add the complete absence of the lumbar tract, and of the large eyelashes on the eyelids. 

 The wings are also very different. The number of remiges was not ascertainable. The first five 

 gradually become longer, although the increase of each feather is less than that of the pre- 

 ceding one ; the fifth is the longest ; the sixth is somewhat longer than the third ; the remainder 

 are very gradually abbreviated. Tail remarkably long, covered by the folded wings only at the 

 base ; its feathers broad and rounded. Beak nearly as in the Buzzards, but stouter and more 

 powerful ; nostril round ; apex of the mandible emarginate, bidentate. Tarsi very long, entirely 

 covered with scales, as are also the toes, except that over each joint, and at the extremity above 

 the claws, there are two plates. 



c. With the dorsal stem of the spinal tract narrow, composed of two or three rows of 

 feathers, but strong, either completely separated from the scapular portion, or 

 connected with it only by two rows of single feathers. 



a. With sparsely scattered contour-feathers by the sides of the band-like dorsal stem of 



the spinal tract. 

 Of this group I am acquainted with two species, namely 



1. Falco metanopslEWX. PL Col., 105. The cervical portion of the inferior tract has at its 

 extremity a distinct but short branch, and is diminished, behind this, to a single row of feathers. 

 The exterior branch of the pectoral stem is perfectly free, but much narrower than the pectoral stem 

 itself; it is dilated at the extremity into a hook, which passes to the liypoptcrum. In the spinal 

 tract I find nothing remarkable as far as the shoulder : the dorsal portion is separated by a perfect 

 gap from the scapular portion ; its feathers are pretty stiff, and it has three or four series of sparse 

 contour-feathers beside it. The lumbar tracts are wanting. In the wings are twenty-three remiges : 

 the first much abbreviated ; the second and third less, but still perceptibly so ; the fourth nearly 

 equal to the fifth, which is the longest ; the remainder rapidly becoming shorter. The first three 

 have a remarkable emargination in the middle of the inner half of the vane, and exhibit a diminution 

 on this side ; hence the second half of the remiges is very acute. Tail moderate, rounded, pro- 

 jecting more than one half beyond the folded wings. 1 The tarsi with broad scutes behind ; those 

 of the front smaller and more scale-like. Beak and nostrils quite different from those of F, 

 cachinnans, and more like those of the Buzzards ; the eyelashes are also wanting, which are 

 possessed by F. cachinnans? 



2. Falco anthracinus LIGHT., from Mexico. Pterylosis exactly as in the preceding bird, but 

 all the tracts rather broader and stronger, especially the scapular part of the spinal tract. The 

 dorsal portion with its main stem somewhat shorter, and the sparse contour-feathers surrounding 

 it distributed over the whole back and the loins, but without forming a true tract upon the latter. 



1 In Temminck's figure the wings are represented too short and too blunt, and in my specimen 

 the caudal band is much broader and nearer to the apex : both these characters are perhaps due to 

 difference of age. 



Hence it does not appear to be possible to unite this Falcon with the genus Herpe- 

 totheres VIEILL., as Lesson has done, especially as it possesses the supraciliary bone which is 

 wanting in the latter (see note, p. 57). Temminck describes it as an Astur, but I regard it rather as a 

 Buteo, 



