94 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



cerned ; and upon the whole these are organized on a plan, the main 

 features of which, as well as in many of the details, are. held in 

 common with Circus. 



The skeletal characters of a Buteo are well seen in a skeleton of 

 B u t e o lineatus, and upon comparing the corresponding parts 

 with a skeleton of Circus hudsonius, I find the skull of 

 the former to possess the vast majority of the characters which have 

 been described above for the skull of the latter. Still there are 

 variations, in addition to the difference in size, that at once dis- 

 Fig. 45 



Fig. 46 



Fig. 45 Superior view, life size, of the skull of Buteo borealis calurus 

 Fig. 46 The same of Falco mexicanus. Drawn by the author from specimens 

 in his own cabinet, now in the New York State Museum. 



tinguish the buteonine skull from that of the hen harrier not- 

 withstanding that they lack any great amount of weight. It is upon 

 the whole relatively broader, slightly shorter, and rather more com- 

 pressed in the vertical direction. The superohorizontal portions of 

 the lacrymals are conspicuously longer, more quadrilateral in form, 

 and the " accessory pieces " very large. In front, the nasal septum 

 is more completely ossified, while laterally the temporal fossae are 

 more extensive. Upon the basal aspect the postpalatine part of 

 either palatine has a straight outside and posterior edge, thus creat- 



