254 The Falcon-like Birds 



of the New World and mainly ranging south of the United States. The adult 

 birds, which vary in length from twenty-two to about twenty-five inches, are 

 of a uniform plumbeous black, with the upper tail-coverts, several bands across 

 the tail, and the tip* of the tail pure white. The Mexican Black Hawk (Uru- 

 bitinga anthracina), the smallest of the three species, is found throughout trop- 

 ical America in general, coming north into southern Arizona and Texas. It 

 is a migratory species, returning to its summer home the first part of April 

 and retiring in October, frequenting while with us the dense trees and under- 

 growth along streams, among which it disappears so quickly as to afford but 

 a fleeting glance. In most cases they appear to be shy birds, though Major 

 Bendire found them unusually tame near Tucson, Arizona, allowing him to 

 approach within thirty feet. They have a very shrill, often-repeated cry, that 

 is an almost exact counterfeit of that of the spring piping of the Long-billed 

 Curlew. The nest, which is evidently occupied for a long series of years, is a 

 bulky affair sometimes measuring four feet in depth and two feet in width, and 

 is lined with green leaves. The nesting habits are not very well known, but it 

 appears that one or two eggs constitute the set, these being white, marked over 

 the entire surface with small irregular blotches of reddish brown. 



The Brazilian Urubitinga (U '. urubitinga) is found from tropical America 

 to the Argentine Republic, and the Mexican Urubitinga (U. u. ridgwayi) from 

 Guatemala north to Vera Cruz and Mazatlan. 



The Buzzards, or Buzzard-Hawks (Subfamily Buteonince). - - The word 

 Buzzard is derived, through the French busard, from the Latin buteo, and 

 according to Newton should perhaps properly be restricted to the common 

 Buzzard (Buteo buteo) of western Europe, but as a matter of fact it is applied, 

 at least as a book name, to the entire group under consideration. In North 

 America, however, where the Black and Turkey Vultures are almost always 

 denominated "Buzzards," this name is rarely if ever applied to the mem- 

 bers of the present subfamily, these being called "Hawks," with some distin- 

 guishing prefix, as "Red-tailed," "Swainson's," "Red -shouldered," etc. The 

 Buzzards, when the name is applied in the broad sense as standing for this 

 whole group, embrace several genera and a large number of species, of medium- 

 sized or some of them large birds, of heavy, compact build and ^rather sluggish 

 habits as compared with many of the other diurnal birds of prey. They bear 

 the reputation of being more or less cowardly and pusillanimous in disposition. 

 More than a century ago Gilbert White wrote: "The Buzzard is a dastardly 

 bird, and beaten not only by the Raven, but even by the Carrion Crow." This 

 may apply to the species of which it was said, but it is not wholly applicable to 

 the New World representatives, for, while they may lack the snap and vim evinced 

 by the Falcons, they are by no means without courage and spirit. 



The genus Buteo, which may be recognized as typical of the subfamily, 

 is a large group of some thirty-three forms, no less than twenty-two of which are 

 natives of the New World. The remainder are widely distributed in the Old 

 World, except in the Indian and Malay provinces, and Australasia and Oceanica, 

 where they are unknown. They have the heavy, robust build characteristic 



