PANDION. 39 



Order ACCIPITRES. 



In the ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium ' this order is divided into two families, 

 FalconidsB and Cathartidse, including the genus Pandion in the former group. The 

 position of this genus has always been a difficulty with systematists. Dr. Sharpe, in 

 1874, went so far as to place Pandion in a separate "suborder" Pandiones, as 

 equivalent to the whole of his " Falcones" (=Accipitres of this work) and "Striges." 

 Mr. Kidgway has a group Pandiones as a section of his subfamily Buteoninae. 

 Dr. Coues divides his order Eaptores into three suborders, viz. Cathartidse, Accipitres, 

 and Striges; and the Accipitres he separates into Falconidae and Pandionidse, an 

 arrangement we think the best, and is the one adopted here, except that having placed 

 the Striges in a separate order we assign' to the Accipitres the same rank, and with 

 them we place the Cathartidse. 



Fam. PANDIONID-ffiJ. 



The reversible outer toe and the absence of an aftershaft to the feathers render 

 Pandion, the only member of this family, distinct from the rest of the Accipitres. 



PANDION. 



Pandion, Savigny, Syst. Ois. Egypte, p. 9 (1810) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p. 448 ; 

 Coues, Key N. Am. Birds, ed. 2, pp. 498, 556. 



Besides the characters given above, Pandion has close and firm plumage, the thighs 

 closely feathered, and none of the feathers elongated as in most Falconidae ; the distal 

 portion of the tarsi and the toes are naked, the feet large and strong, the claws very large 

 and equal in length, not grooved beneath, but compressed, the middle claw grooved on its 

 inner face ; the bill has no notch or tooth at the end of the tomia, but the mandible is 

 strongly hooked ; the nostrils are oval, without tubercle, in the edge of the cere. The 

 relative position of the distal ends of the coracoid, scapula, and furcula is the same as 

 in the Buteonine section of the Falconidae, the scapular process of the coracoid not 

 reaching to the end of the furcula. This fact led Mr. Ridgway to place Pandion in 

 his Buteoninae. 



With the possible exception of the small Pandion leucocephalus of Australia and 

 New Guinea, there is only one species of this genus, the range of which is given 

 below. 



1. Fandion haliaetus. 



Falco haliaetus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 129 '. 



Pandion haliaetus, Less. Man. d'Orn. i. p. 86'; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p. 449' ; Salv. Ibis, 

 1889, p. 374*. 



