552 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— BAPTOBES—ACGIPITRES. 



with extensive white areation, which characters increase on the secondaries. Iris brown ; cere 

 and feet bright yellow; bill and claws blue-black. Wing of <J 10.00 ; tail 7-00 ; tarsus 2.75 ; 

 middle toe without claw 1.50. Wing of 9 11.00; tail 8.00. Young: Blackish -bniwn above, 

 much variegated with reddish-buff, the white upper tail-coverts spotted with blackish ; below, 

 whitish, dashed with large blackish marks, the flags barred ; tail dark brown, with numerous 

 narrow blackish bars. Cent. Am. and Mex., regularly into southwestern U. S., occasionally 

 up the Mississippi Valley to Illinois. Nest in trees or bushes, not peculiar; eggs 2, round- 

 oval, cohirless, 2.00 X 1-60. 



183. URUBITIN'GA. (S. Am. «n(6M, a vulture ; fwi^a, bright.) Anthracite Buzzaed.s. Gen- 

 eral chars, of Bateo, but system of coloration peculiar, the adults being chiefly black and white, 

 the tail typically broadly zoned. The limits f)f the genus vary with different writers ; it 

 contains several species, confined to America, one of them reaching our border. In this the 

 tail is about f as long as the wing, einarginate or nearly even ; the wing with 3d-5tli cjuills 

 longest, 2d about equal to 6th, 1st very short ; outer 4 sinuate on inner webs ; the point of the 

 folded wing reaching but little beyond the longest secondaries; the bill lengthened aiid rather 

 weak ; the tomia of the upper mandible strongly festooned or almost lobated back of the hook ; 

 gonys convex ; nostrils large, subcircular ; lores extensively denuded ; tarsus much longer than 

 middle toe and claw, feathered but a little way down in front, scutellate before and behind, 

 reticulated laterally like the basis of the toes, which in the rest of their length are broadly 

 scutellate. 



538. U. anthraci'na. (Lat. anthracinus, carbuncular ; in this case coal-black.) Asthracitb 

 Buzzard. Adult ^ 9 ■ Coal-black ; feathers of head and neck with concealed white bases ; 

 tail white at extreme base and tip, and crossed about the middle with a broad white zone; ends 

 of coverts white ; quills of wing more or less mottled with rusty-brown ; cere, rictus, and base 

 of bill, and feet, yellow; bill and claws blackish. Length about 23.00; wing 13.00-15.00; 

 tail 8.00-10.00 ; tarsus 3.25 ; 9 larger than ^ . Young : Extensively varied with rusty or buff, 

 which is gradually obliterated as the bird matures ; tail numerously barred mth black and 

 white. There are 6-9 such bars, mostly broken or otherwise irregular. The whole under 

 parts are white, more or less tinged with buff, pencilled on the throat, heavily striped on the 

 breast and sides, closely barred across on the tibite and crissum, with blackish. The feathers of 

 the head, nape, and foreback are largely white or whitish, appearing in streaks among the over- 

 lying blackish of the ends of the feathers. The exposed portions of the primaries are blackish, 

 obsoletely crossed with lighter; these feathers lightening basaUy and internally, where narrow 

 blackish bars alternate with wider spaces of white tinged with brown and fulvous. The 

 secondaries and larger coverts are brown with nanxiw dark liars, their inner webs also indented 

 with whitish and tawny. The younger the bird the more the whitish or buff prevails over the 

 dark colors. The contrast between the cross-barred tibife and the lengthwise-striped breast 

 and sides is always notable. The tail varies from rounded through square to emargiuato. 

 A remarkable hawk of Cent. Am., W. I., and Mex., lately ascertained to occur in Arizona. 



184. ONY'CHOTES. (Gr. livv^, ovvxos, onux, omichos, a claw, and a suffix -tijs-, -tes.) Clawed 

 Buzzard. "Bill short, the tip remarkably short and obtuse, and only gradually bent ; cere 

 on top about equal to culmen ; very broad basally in its transverse diameter, and ascending in 

 its lateral outline, on a line with the culmen ; commissure only faintly lobed. Nostril nearly 

 circular, with a conspicuous (but not central or bony) tubercle ; cere densely bristled below the 

 nostril, almost to its anterior edge; orbital region finely bristled. Tarsus very long and slen- 

 der, nearly twice the length of the middle toe ; toes moderate, the outer one decidedly shelter 

 than the inner ; claws very long, strong, and sharp, curved in about one-quarter the circumfer- 

 ence of a circle. Tibial feathers very short and close, the plumes scarcely reaching below the 

 |oint. Feathers of the forehead, gular region, sides and tibite with white filamentous attach- 

 ments to the ends of the shafts. Wing very short, much rounded, and very concave bencatli ; 



