21 



FAMILY II. FALCONING. FALCONINE BIRDS. 



Bill short, stout, cerate; upper mandible with the tip elongated and 

 decurved; lower mandible rounded and thin-edged at the end. Head rather 

 large, broadly ovate, feathered. Eyes large, with prominent superciliary 

 ridges. External aperture of ears of moderate size, and simple. Tarsus 

 longer than the middle toe; claws very large, much curved, extremely acute. 

 Plumage full and generally compact. Wings very long and broad. (Eso- 

 phagus excessively wide and dilated into a crop; stomach large, somewhat 

 membranous, its muscular fasciculi being placed in a single series; intestine 

 short and rather wide, or very long and slender; coeca extremely small. 

 The young, when fledged, generally having the lower parts longitudinally 

 streaked. Eggs from two to six, ovate, or roundish. Nest on trees, rocks, 

 or the ground. 



Genus I.— POLYBORUS, Vieill. CARACARA. 



Bill large, high, rather long, much compressed; cere large, covered with 

 hair-like feathers; upper outline convex and declinate to the edge of the 

 cere, then decurved; edge of upper mandible slightly arched and nearly 

 even, tip of lower compressed and rounded. Nostrils elliptical, oblique, in 

 the anterior part of the cere near the ridge. Eyelids and space anterior to 

 the eye denuded, as is the skin over the crop. Feet rather long; tarsi 

 anteriorly scutellate, sharp-edged and scaly behind; toes rather long, broadly 

 scutellate, the first much shorter than the second; claws long, little curved, 

 that of the middle toe being only slightly arched. Wings long, rounded, 

 the third and fourth quills longest, the first five having the inner web cut 

 out. Tail rather long, rounded. 



THE CARACARA EAGLE. 



-^PoLYBOEUS BEAZILIENSIS, Gm. 



PLATE IV. 



I was not aware of the existence of the Caracara or Brazilian Eagle in the 

 United States, until my visit to the Floridas in the winter of 1831. On the 



