648 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — BAPTOBES— A CCIPITBB3. 



thickly and sharply marked with blackish-brown. These large dark spots, for the most part 

 circular or guttiform, crowd across the forebreast, scatter on the middle belly, enlarge to cross- 

 bars on the flanks, become broad arrow-heads on the lower belly and tibiae, and are wanting 

 on the throat, which is only marked with a sharp, narrow, blackish pencilling along the median 

 line. Quills brownish-black, the outer webs with a?! ashy shade, the inner webs toward the 

 base grayish, paler, and marbled with white, and also showing obscure dark cross-bars ; their 

 shafts black on top, nearly white underneath. Tail-feathers like the quills, but more decidedly 

 shaded with ashy or slate-gray, and tipped with vs'hitish ; their numerous dark cross-bars show 

 more plainly than those of the quills, but are not so evident as they are in the old birds. 

 Nestlings are covered with white fluffy down. Western N. Am., Mississippi Valley to the 

 Pacific, abundant ; in many regions the commonest and most characteristic of the large hawks ; 

 occasionally eastward through the N. States to Canada and New England. Nests indifferently 

 ori the ground, cliffs, bushes, trees ; nest indistinguishable from that of other large hawks ; eggs 

 usually 2, — I have never found more, sometimes only one; they are about 2.25 X 1.75, resem- 

 bling hen's eggs, being nearly colorless and unmarked, like those of the marsh hawk ; some- 

 times stained with rusty-brownish, probably never marked all over nor boldly blotched anywhere. 

 This buzzard represents the European B. vulgaris (fig. 381) in N. Am., being, in fact, little 

 different. (It is Falco buteo And., folio pi. 372; B. vulgaris Sw., F. B. A., pi. 27 ; Aud., 8vo, 

 pi. 6; B. montanus Nutt., 184.0, not of authors; B. bairdi Hoy (young) ; ?£. oxypterus Cass. 

 : (young) ; B. insignatus Cass., 111. pi. 31 (melariistic) ; B- gutturalis Maxim. ; B. obsoletus 

 Sharpe, 1874 (not Falco obsoletus Gm.). It is probably also B. " vulgaris" of Maynard, Bull. 

 Nutt. Club, i, 1876, p. 2; and of Ridg., ibid. p. 32.) 

 5a4. B. pennsylva'nicus. (Lat. pmnsylvamcus, of Wm. Penn's woods.) Bkoad-winged 

 Buzzard. Adult $ ? : Above, dark brown, the feathers with blackish shaft-lines, and pale 

 grayish-brown or even lighter edgings, those of hind head and nape cottony-white basally ; 

 usually also son:(e feathers with fulvous edgings, especially on the hind neck; upper tail-coverts 

 . barred or spotted with white. Primaries and secondaries blackish on outer webs and at ends, 

 most of the inner webs white in large area, more or less perfectly barred with dusky; concealed 

 parts of scapulars thus barred on both webs. Exposed portion of tail M'ith three blackish 

 zones, the terminal one broadest, alternating narrower pale gray or grayish-white zones, one of 

 these terminal ; from below these zones appear whitish, but from above grayish. Under parts 

 mixed white and fulvous-brown, or duU chestnut, the latter nearly as pronounced as in B. linea- 

 tus, the pattern being rather that of Accipiter fuscus or A. cooperi; the fulvous in excess ante • 

 riorly, the white prevailing posteriorly and nearly or quite immaculate on crissum ; the middle 

 regions with the white in oval paired spots or incomplete bars on ea«h feather, the flanks and 

 tibise pretty regularly barred with the two colors ; most of the feathers black-shafted, producing 

 a fine pencilling, this black increasing to decided streaking on the white throat, and forming 

 noticeable maxillary patches. Lining of wings mostly white, but vrith some reddish and black- 

 ish spotting. Bill mostly dark ; feet yellow; claws black. Length of ^ 14.00; extent 33.00; 

 wing 10.50-11.00; tail 6.50-7.00; tarsus 2.30; middle toe without claw 1.20. ? larger; 

 wing 11.00-11.50; tail 7.00-7.50. Young: Differs as usual in the genus, in lacking the 

 special coloration and pattern of the under parts, tail-pattern different, wing-pattern much the 

 same. Upper parts blackish -brown, highly variegated with fulvous, tawny, or whitish edgings 

 of all the feathers, on the head and neck the light and dark colors in streaks about balancing 

 each other. Under parts white, more or less buff-toned, with more or fewer linear or clubbed 

 fuscous markings on the breast and sides, changing to arrow-heads on the flanks and sides, 

 the amount of this marking wholly indeterminate. Tail crossed with numerous light and dark 

 bars (six or eight of each exp(jsed), on both webs of middle feathers and outer webs of the others : 

 these on their inner webs largely white, with consequently better pronounced dark bars ; aU 

 the feathers tipped with white. Eastern N. Am. and throughout Middle America, common ; 



