On the Groups of the Falconidce. 333 



BuTEo, Auct. 

 Their nares are round, and their fourth quill feather the longest. 

 Their tarsi are either plumed to the toes or half way covered with 

 feathers. Of those whose tarsi are completely feathered, the 

 booted Falcon oi our cabinets, F. lagopus, Linn, presents the type; 

 to which J^. desertorum^ Daud. appears also to appertain ; of 

 those birds whose tarsi are but half plumed," our common Buz- 

 zard, B. vulga)is, Auct., F. buteo, Linn, affords a familiar exam- 

 ple. The genus is very numerous in species, and the form is very 

 generally to be observed over the globe. 



§. 5. Stirps 3Iilvi?ia. Kites. 



We have now arrived at the last division of the family, which is 

 nearly allied to that immediately preceding in habits and general 

 conformation ; but which exhibits a sufficiently characteristick dif- 

 ference in the length of the wings, and the forked structure of the 

 tail. These characters, as I have before observed, separate the 

 Kites from all the other Raptorial Birds by the peculiar power 

 and gracefulness which they confer upon their flight. They are 

 divided into two genera, as follows. 



The first, the genus 



Elanus, Sav. 

 is known by its long wings, of which the second quill feather is 

 the longest, its half-plumed and reticulated tarsi, its toes entirely 

 separated, its cere covered, and its nails large and pointed. The 

 latter also, with the exception of the middle nail, are rounded, 

 underneath, as in the genus Pandion. F. melanopterus^ Daud. 

 forms the type, to which we may add F. furcatus, Linn., and F, 

 Riocouriij Vieill. In these last species, however, the tail is con- 

 siderably more forked than in the former, and the ungues do not 

 exhibit the singular roundness underneath, discoverable in E. 

 melanopterus.^ The genus may thus be s'^^parated for the present 

 into two sections. 



* I infer this circumstance from the silence of M.M. Wilson and Temminck. 

 on the subject, who would certainly have pointed out so striking a charac- 

 ter, if it existed in the bird. A specimen of E. Riocourii, in the British Mu- 

 seum, does not appear to possess the character, but the ungues are so muti- 

 lated that nothini^ decisive can be determined respecting them. 



