70 



Genus VI.— ELANUS, Sav. 



Bill short, small, very wide at the base, much compressed toward the end; 

 upper mandible with the dorsal line convex and declinate to the end of the 

 cere, then decurved, the sides slightly convex, the tip narrow and acute, the 

 edges with a distinct festoon, lower mandible with the angle very wide and 

 long, the dorsal line very short, and slightly convex, the tip obliquely trun- 

 cate, and narrow. Nostrils elliptical, rather large, about half-way between 

 the cere and ridge. Head rather large, broad, flattened above; neck short; 

 body compact. Legs rather short; tarsus very short, stout, roundish, feathered 

 anteriorly for half its length, the rest covered with small roundish scales; 

 toes short, thick, scaly, with a few terminal scutella; claws long, curved, 

 conical, rounded beneath, acute. Plumage very soft, and rather blended. 

 Wings very long and pointed, the second quill longest. Tail of moderate 

 breadth, long, emarginate, and rounded. 



BLACK -SHOULDERED HAWK. 



Elanus dispar, Tern. 



PLATE XVI Male and Female. 



I have traced the migration of this beautiful Hawk from the Texas as far 

 east as the mouth of the Santee River in South Carolina. Charles Bona- 

 parte first introduced it into our Fauna, on the authority of a specimen 

 procured in East Florida by Titian Peale, Esq., of Philadelphia, who it 

 seems had some difficulty in obtaining it. On the 8th of February, 1S34, I 

 received one of these birds alive from Dr. Ravenel, of Charleston, who had 

 kept it in his yard for eight days previously, without being able to induce it 

 to take any food. The beauty of its large eyes struck me at once, and I 

 immediately made a drawing of the bird, which was the first I had ever seen 

 alive. It proved to be a male, and was in beautiful plumage. Dr. Ravenel 

 told me that it walked about his yard with tolerable ease, although one of its 

 wings had been injured. On the 23d of the same month I received another 

 fine specimen, a female, from Francis Lee, Esq., who had procured it on 

 his plantation, forty miles west of Charleston, and with it the following note. 

 "When first observed, it was perched on a tree in an erect posture. I saw 



