518 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— RAPTORES — ACCIPITRES. 
cutting edges are usually lobed, or toothed (see any figs.). The lores, with 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 ruff hiding the base 
of the bill. Wings of 10 primaries, and tail of 12 rectrices (with rare exceptions); both 
extremely 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-joint of Accipitres; after Ridgway. a, anterior end of coracoid; 0, upper end of clavicle; 
ce, scapular process of coracoid, reaching b in the middle fig. (Falco peregrinus), but not in the left-hand fig. (Buteo 
borealis), nor in the right hand fig. (Pandion haliattus); d, lower end of scapula. The figs nat. size, left side, 
viewed from opposite side. 
and strongly contractile toes, cleft 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 homy 
covering takes the form of scutella, or reticulations, or rugous granulations, and is occasionally 
fused. The capacious gullet dilates into a crop; the gizzard is inoderately muscular; the 
coeca are extremely small. The oil-gland is tufted. The syrinx has ote pair of intrinsic 
muscles. The ambiens and femoro-caudal muscles are present; the accessory femoro-caudal, 
semitendinosus and its accessory are absent. There are good osteological characters: The 
phalanges of the hind 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. Ridgway (fig. 362): In certain genera, as Falco, Micrastur, 
Herpetotheres, and in the Polyborine, the scapular process of the coracoid, fig. 362, ¢, is pro- | 
longed beneath the scapula, d, to meet the clavicle, b; which is not the case in other groups of 
gencra of the Falconide, nor in Pandionide. This distinction has been made the basis of a 
primary division of the diurnal Accipitres into two subfamilies, Falconine and Buteonine, the 
former including Polyborus aud its allies, the latter including Pandion; 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 Pandionide as a family distinct from Falconide proper, on the 
ground of its many peculiarities. This being done, the character, of the sheulder-joint may 
properly be considered in dividing the Falconide into subfamilies. I am perfectly willing to 
approximate Polyborus to Falco on this technical ground, notwithstanding the great outward 
dissimilarity of these two forms; but it is unlikely that ornithologists will 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 
