226 The Falcon-like Birds 



THE KITES, BUZZARDS, EAGLES, HAWKS, AND 



ALLIES 



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(Family Buteonidaz) 



The Kites, Buzzards, Eagles, Harriers, Hawks, and their allies, comprise 

 the second of the two families (the Buteonida) into which the Accipitres are 

 divided, and are disposed in some thirteen so-called subfamilies, the limits of 

 which, however, are not sharp in all cases. The technical characters of the 

 Buteonida have been given on page 212, and we may proceed to a review of the 

 various groups, which are perhaps best ranked as subfamilies. Most of them are 

 large birds, among them the largest of the whole group, and while there is hardly 

 one without certain points of popular interest, lack of space will prevent the full 

 description of more than representative members. 



The Kites. (Subfamily Elanina.) A considerable number of accipitrine 

 birds are known, and properly so, as Kites, since they possess at least the 

 common character of lightness, ease, and grace on the wing that is the common 

 property of but few birds. A more careful study of their structure, however, 

 has shown that beyond this gracefulness of flight they are not all equally 

 related. The so-called Kites of the genus Elanus may be regarded as typical 

 of a subfamily, the Elanince. The genus is of wide distribution, ranging 

 over the whole of Africa, the Indian peninsula, the Indo-Malayan islands, 

 and Australia, and in the New World from the southern United States over 

 the whole of Central and South America. Five species are known, all small 

 birds from twelve to sixteen inches in length. The tail is double-rounded 

 and not deeply forked as in the true Kites, while the tarsus is naked in front 

 and covered with minute roundish scales, and the claws are not grooved be- 

 neath as in some of their allies. The White-tailed Kite (E. leucurus) is the only 

 American species. It is pale bluish gray above, becoming entirely white on 

 head and tail, and pure white below, while the lesser wing-coverts and a spot 

 in front of the eye are black. It is rather a rare bird in the United States 

 east of the Mississippi, being perhaps most frequently met with in California, 

 though nowhere abundant, while in many parts of South America it is a not 

 uncommon species. It frequents the lowlands, where it may be seen beating 

 back and forth over the surface of the ground, poising for a moment on rapidly 

 beating wings as it scans the surface for its prey, on which it plunges with almost 

 meteoric speed, or passes on in further quest. Of its habits in Argentina, Mr. 

 Hudson writes: "It is a handsome bird, with large ruby-red irides, and when 

 seen at a distance its snow-white plumage and buoyant flight give it a striking 

 resemblance to a Gull. Its wing power is, indeed, marvelous. It delights to 

 soar, like the Martins, during a high wind, and will spend hours in this sport, 

 rising and falling alternately, and at times, seeming to abandon itself to the fury 

 of the gale, is blown away like thistle-down, until, recovering itself, it shoots back 

 to its original position. Where there are tall poplar trees these birds amuse 

 themselves with outspread wings, each bird on a separate tree, until the treetops 



