48 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



example, the smallness of the head and bill is very remarkable ; the sinuosity of 

 the cutting margin of the upper mandible is rather more developed in the male 

 than in the female ; the second quill feather is slightly longer than the fifth, the 

 third is equal to the fourth, or even exceeds it, and the first is intermediate in 

 length between the seventh and eighth ; the third and fourth are conspicuously 

 longer than the rest ; — a structure of wing which adapts this bird for more rapid 

 flight than either the Buteo borealis or Astur palumbarius. — Sw. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, shot, on the 17th of June, at the nest, which contained three eggs. Plains of the Saskatchewan. 



Colour of the dorsal aspect between clove and blackish browns, the margins of the feathers 

 being paler. The head and posterior part of the back are darker, while on the rest of the 

 upper plumage the borders of the feathers fade gradually into soiled yellowish-brown. The 

 quill feathers and longest scapularies have a shining blackish-brown colour; there are some 

 obscure bars on the former, produced by a slight deepening of the colour, and at the 

 base of the inner webs of the first and second quill feathers, these bars are slightly mottled 

 with white. The secondaries and a few of the adjoining primaries are very narrowly tipped 

 with brownish white. The tail is deep clove-brown, darkening towards its end into blackish- 

 brown, and having a very narrow soiled tip. On a close inspection, it is seen to be crossed 

 by about seven bars of a deeper shade, the terminal one an inch broad, the others much 

 narrower. Under surface. The cheeks are pure clove-brown ; the throat is white ; the sides 

 of the neck, its fore part next the breast, and the upper part of the latter, are dull broccoli- 

 brown, with a slight intermixture of yellowish-brown. The belly and thighs are pale yellowish- 

 brown, indistinctly barred with white. The vent feathers and under tail coverts are soiled 

 white. The flanks are yellowish-brown, with some patches of clove-brown. The linings of 

 the wings are brownish-white, with a few dispersed specks of yellowish-brown ; and the greater 

 interior coverts are harred with dark-brown. The under surfaces of the quill feathers are 

 blackish-grey, deepening at their tips into blackish-brown, and barred towards the base of 

 their inner webs with yellowish-grey. The tail beneath is very pale ash-grey, crossed by 

 seven bars of clove-brown. Bill bluish-black. Cere and legs yellowish. Claws black. 



Form, &c- — Head round, with a very convex crown. Bill broad at the base, flatly convex 

 above, and much compressed towards the tip, which forms a rather slender acute hook. The 

 curve of the ridge of the bill is elliptical. The cutting margin of the upper mandible is sinu- 

 ated, and the lobe is rendered more distinct by a shallow and wide furrow on the side of the 

 bill immediately anterior to it. The lower mandible is rounded, or very obliquely truncated, 

 at the end. The nostrils are roundish, approaching to pear-shaped, with the narrow corner 

 turned forwards and upwards. The cere covers a large portion of the bill, and is quite naked 

 and exposed on its ridge, the feathers of the forehead lying smoothly back and receding from 

 it : on the sides it is partially hidden by the black hairs which spring from the lores. Wings. 

 The third quill feather is the longest, the fourth is nearly a quarter of an inch, and the second 



