248 RIKPS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



tlie interior, nor in the forest or liilly districts ; but along the 

 estuarine parts of the great rivers, and the tidal portions of the 

 main creeks, it is to he met everywhere, especially about the cul- 

 tivated districts near the town, and even in the neighbourhood of 

 the town itself. It is much dreaded in the poultry-yards, from 

 which it not infrequently carries oiF young birds of all kinds, and 

 being a powerful bird on the wing, it is equally able to successfully 

 attack poultry of larger size. Its food is of a very miscellaneous 

 character, consisting of small mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, and 

 insects, though reptiles seem to afford its main portion. When 

 seen on the wing, sailing as it were in the air, with only occasional 

 flaps of the wings, it is not unlike the Aura Vulture, except that 

 the white base of the tail is very conspicuous and distinctive, and 

 serves at once to distinguish the species from all others. The 

 passage of this bird over or near to the poultry-yard will always 

 be noticeable owing to the peculiar clucking noise set up by the 

 fowls, which seem to recognize instinctively an hereditary foe." 



Mr. Beebe (Our Search,^ for a "Wilderness, p. IG-i) writes : — 

 "About noon a third migrational flocking of birds was noticed ; 

 seventy-two large South American Black Hawks circling slowly 

 around, settin"; their wino[S after a while and sailino; off to the 

 west as one bird." 



157. Urubitinga anthracina. 

 Mexican Black Hawk. 



Faho anthracinns Nitzsch, Syst. Ptervl. p. 83, 1840 (Mexico). 

 Ilypomorphnus anthracinus Cab. in Schomb. Reis. Guian. iii. p. 740, 



1848. 

 TJruhitinga anthracina Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i. p. 21o. 1874; 



Salvin, Ibis, 1886, p. 74; Quelch, Tiniehri (2) vi. p. 157, 1892; 



Brabom-ne & Chubb, B. S. Amer. i. p. 69, no. 633, 1912. 



Adult male. General colour above and below slaty-black with 

 white bases to the feathers on the nape, which are more or less 

 marked with rufous ; the outer primaries mottled with white on 

 the inner web towards the base ; the inner primary and secondarv 

 quills mottled with rufous and hoary grey; upper and under tail- 

 coverts edged with white at the tips; a narrow white band on the 

 base of the tail, and a broader one towards the tip^ the tip also 

 edged with white; the feathers on the abdomen, thighs, and under 

 wing-coverts narrowly edged with rufous. 



Total length 530 mm., culnien (including the cere) 31, wing 357, 

 tail 199, tarsus 02. 



