518 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— BAPT0BE8—ACCIPITBES. 



cutting edges are usually lobed, or toothed (see any figs.)- The lores, vrith occasional excep- 

 tions, due to nakedness or dense soft featherings, are scantily clothed with radiating bristly 

 feathers, which, however, do not form, as usual in owls, a dense appressed raff hiding the base 

 of the bill. Wings of 10 primaries, and tail of 12 rectrices (with rare exceptions); both 

 extreinely variable in shape and relative and absolute lengths. The feet are usually strong and 

 efficient instruments of prehension and weapons of offence or defence, with widely separable 



Fig. 362. — Shoulder-joiBt of Accipitres ; after Ridgway. a, anterior end of coracoid ; b, upper end of clavicle ; 

 c, scapular process of coracoid, reaching b in the middle fig. (Falco peregrinus), but not in the left-hand flg. [Bulm 

 borealis), nor in the right hand fig. {Pandion hatrndtus)', d, lower end of scapula. The tigs nat. size, left side, 

 viewed from opposite side. 



and strongly contractile toes, oleft to the base or there only united by small movable webs, and 

 generally scabrous underneath with wart-like pads or tylari to prevent slipping, as shown in 

 fig. 46. The claws are developed into large sharp curved talons. The tarsal envelope (pod- 

 otheca) varies ; sometimes the whole tarsus is feathered, and it is usually so in part ; the horny 

 covering takes the form of scutella, or reticulations, or rugous granulations, and is occasifmally 

 fused. The capacious gullet dilates into a crop ; the gizzard is moderately muscular ; the 

 coeea are extremely small. The oil-gland is tufted. The syrinx has one pair of intrinsic 

 muscles. The ainbiens and feinoro-caudal muscles are present; the accessory femoro-caudal, 

 seuiitendinosus and its accessory are absent. There are good osteologioal characters : The 

 phalanges of the liind toe are more than half as long as those of the outer toe ; the basal joint 

 of the middle or outer toe is longer than the next one. There are no basipterygoid processes. 

 The sternum is manubriated, and when not entire behind is single-notched or fenestrate on each 

 side (doubly so in most owls). Huxley has called attention to a character of the shoulder-girdle, 

 afterward well elaborated by Mr. Eidgway (fig. 363) : In certain genera, as Falco, Micfrastiwr, 

 Herpetotheres, and in the Polyhorince, the scapular process of the coracoid, fig. 362, c, is pro- 

 longed beneath the scapula, d, to meet the clavicle, &; which is not the case in other groups of 

 genera of the Faleonidee, nor in Pandionidce. This distinction has been made the basis of a 

 primary division of the diurnal Accipitres into two subfamilies, Falconince and ButeonincB, the 

 former including Polyhorus and its allies, the latter including Pcmdion; but some modification 

 of this scheme is advisable, I think. It seems to me that the primary division should be made 

 as on p. 498, by excluding Pcmdionidm as a family distinct from Faleonidee proper, on the 

 ground of its many peculiarities. This being done, the character of the shoulder-joint may 

 properly bo considered in dividing the Falconidm into subfamilies. I am perfectly willing to 

 approximate Polyhorus to Fdko on this technical ground, notwithstanding the great outward 

 dissimilarity of these two forms ; but it is unlikely that ornithologists wiU allow the construc- 

 tion of the shoulder-joint to outweigh all other, characters combined. 



Diurnal Birds of Prey abound in all parts of the world, holding the relation to the rest of 

 their class that the carnivorous beasts do to other mammals. With many exceptions, the sexes 

 are alike in color, but the female is almost invariably larger than the male. The changes of 



